Validation

Most of us in blogland are guilty of it...we measure our blogging success by the amount of comments we get. Just one visit to a popular blog out there with 89 comments to one post is enough to send a person into "woe is me" land. Some even question if blogging is worth the trouble when no one comments. I myself have felt that way from time to time but decided the last time I felt that way that the blog is just like a conversation and you don't always have a conversation with chatter boxes. Nothing wrong with being a chatter box, I am one at times and quite comfortable in that skin.
Women are always looking for validation, we seem to thrive on it. Always measuring ourselves against another. We don't usually admit to this almost frail aspect of ourselves. I remember being a newly wed and asking Emery if he thought some girl passing by us in the store was prettier than me. Well I sure didn't want him to say yes, and he is a smart man and said "NO WAY", even though she looked like she just came off the pages of Vogue Magazine. Somehow I wanted to hear that he thought I was the best for him. I must have been feeling a bit insecure in my new role as wife. I never ask that kind of question now, well, actually I did ask him at the Botanic Gardens this spring, "am I as fat as that woman ?" Naturally I picked a woman that was about 200 lbs bigger than me, so it was safe to ask and the answer made me feel better, he once again answered, "NO WAY".
Don't measure your success in blogging by the amount of comments you receive, sometimes there really isn't anything to add to a post and then in the big picture, we should just blog to say the things and share the things we want. I know what I want as my focus and have found that its not the same as most folks, which is fine too, I have always marched to a different drum beat.
Blog for the love of what you do or feel. Feedback is nice sure, but sometimes we are just sharing with a quiet group or need to dig deeper inside ourselves and share more of who we are, the kind of conversation you have with a friend.
Like the picture shows, things are not always clear up ahead to the casual observer, but knowing yourself well, knowing where you want to go, knowing where you are yourself, makes all the difference. I can still see the lighthouse across the water, and know which step to take next.
Melanie and I are on the rocky shore of Nubble light in York Maine. To me, the perfect kind of day at the ocean.