I’m actually brushing back a few tears right now. Mostly happy ones, thankfully, but a few sad ones. Out of the clear blue, I just decided to revisit my old Mockingbird blogger site I never deactivated and as a result, I’ve been taking quite an interesting walk down memory lane on this otherwise dreary and rainy Sunday. As a person who’s been writing for years — for fun, for satisfaction and yes, for money — one of my favorite and most useful tools of staying fresh and keeping motivated has been reflection.

In recent posts, Holly and I have discussed a talk about blogging we had at a meet up and the gist of it has really had me in deep thought lately. One of the most important subjects we touched upon (and now, cover your ears, preachers, pastors and reverends everywhere) was the fact that our blogs evolve. Our writing evoles. There’s that word. Evolution. But, no, we’re not talking about how the writing once may have crawled on all fours before it stood up to skip on two feet. We’re talking about how, as we’ve grown, matured, met new friends, visited new areas and adopted new ideas, the writing in our blogs has subsequently taken on a new shape and focus. It’s a constant experiment. We write about what means the most to us, what’s foremost on our minds, what we want people to know and then we wipe the slate clean and begin again with an entirely new set of subjects.

Right now, I have a drawer full of stories I wrote in kindergarten and first grade complete with illustrations. I’ve kept up with essays from high school, a few stories from college and a few newspaper articles from later on. My old blogger site carries the same sort of writing with memories attached — turning 25 (or as I called it, a quarter century), getting my dog, looking at the war through the eyes of a soldier friend, making New Year’s resolutions, being starstruck, meeting Finn.

Bottom line: Writing is growing. The words are synonymous. Fed by determination and inspiration, they follow a parallel path that sometimes wanders through unknown, frightening darkness yet always winds back into downhill bicycle riding excitement and reward with applause and self-fulfillment as the background music.

Best of luck to everyone on this journey.

Thanks for coming along on mine.