International Weblogger's Day

Today is International Weblogger's Day (see the little button to the right?) and I thought I'd take this chance to talk about what blogging means to me.

As you can see from my archives, I've only been doing this for five months now. I started out with the intention of just sharing our day-to-day lives with my family and friends. It was an easy way to pass on pictures and funny things the kids were doing. That lasted for about a week. Then I discovered that little "Next blog" button at the top of the Blogger screen. If you've never clicked on it, what it does is take you to a random blog. I started finding the most amazing people's blogs. Then I discovered Rings. I could go from blog to blog of other Stay-At-Home Moms and find other women like me. And more recently, I came across Blog Explosion, where not only can I surf other peoples' blogs, but I earn credits by doing so, which I use to direct others to my blog.

Naturally, I have not liked everything I've seen out there in the blogosphere. There are an awful lot of people who hold very different views than I do. There are plenty who hold the same ones, too. I go past the ones I don't agree with pretty quickly, but if they are well-written, I will stick around and read. I am willing to listen to any viewpoint if it is intelligently expressed. I also decided that there are many, many people expressing a similar viewpoint to mine very eloquently already. Thus I avoid highly-charged topics here. I will occasionally express my opinion, but not often. My blogging motto is, "Can't we all just get along?"

I love to find blogs that look at everyday life and laugh. I love to find people like me, going through the same types of things I'm going through. Rest assured that I read everyone on my Blogroll every day. There is an amazing community of people here in the blogosphere who will never fail to welcome you with open arms if you just take the time to make a thoughtful comment. I love seeing people comment on my posts, too. It's the sort of instant gratification every writer longs for.

I am having so much fun creating and re-creating my blog, and reading the blogs of others, I can't believe it took me this long to discover this wonderful form of expression. Take the time today to go discover a blog you haven't read before; start with my blogroll if you'd like! And if you leave me a comment, I'll come visit yours, too!