As of a year and a half ago, I still couldn’t see why I should join Facebook or communicate with people I hadn’t seen in a long while. I was living in a lonely dull shell that I was used to. I thought, “What could I say that they’d want to hear? So long and far away from our pasts, what did I have to offer them that they would want? And why would I want to make friends with people I couldn’t see? Worse, maybe they’ll all scorn my advances.”
This would be the deafening roar of low self-esteem. As I started to turn the volume down and began to reach out to people everywhere, I connected with old friends and made new ones too. And suddenly, where I was used to being a little cold and lonely, I’m now hanging out in a warm shiny happy room with a mutual appreciation club full of people. Community is there in that room that you create in your hearts. You furnish it with well wishes and compassion and care. And it nurtures the creative.
I am so extraordinarily grateful for this growing group of people in my life and I thought my New Year’s Eve shout out would be to everyone I’ve reconnected and befriended this year. To Sarah, Nalisa, Melissa, Sian, Gwen, and Dig, you all have been in my heart for a long long time. And to my new blogging and online friends and acquaintances Kathy, Amy, Amanda, Tania, Amy, Jane, Maria, Sandra, Jennifer, Wendy, Sheryl, and the kind people on Twitter who address me like I’ve got something to say worth acknowledging ( and anyone who I’m forgetting, you’ll pardon my brain), I am truly grateful for all your well wishes and wonderful support. I never knew what I was missing and you have crafted my definition of gratitude.
And thank you to the powers that be for gifting me with a belly baby to share with my family, friends, and the world. Hope is a mighty powerful thing.
Love and Happiness for the new Year,
Shalagh
8 Comments
Thanks, Shalagh. I appreciate your support and creative spirit, too, in my blogging endeavors. I wish you the best for 2013 and your family, and your new little one! Hugs!
Much love,
Amy
I’d support you in any other endeavor you took on Amy. Just tell me what and when.
Love,
Shalagh
I appreciate you too and am so glad you found me amongst the gazillions of blogs out there. I love that I can hop over to FB anytime I need to contact someone like my BF in Connecticut or my cousin in Arizona. Living in Hawaii especially, it is difficult for us to call and just say, hey, whatcha doing today?
I’m not on FB as much as I was before I started blogging (I do very quick I’m in and I’m out) but I still like it. Instagram is one of my favorites too and great for making new friends or when I’m a bit too burnt out for reading or have had a bad day.
So happy you took BYW and enjoyed it (warning, it’s addictive, I’ve taken three courses so far but still feel it’s a tremondous value each time). Happy new year!! Toasting you with cranberry juice & sparkling water mama to be (again…).
What a compliment to Holly that she keeps putting out fresh material. I’m not a huge FB fanatic either. Although, on her final podcast, ole’ Holly has you all up in FB and Twitter multiple times daily. So I’m getting me a fiddle phone this month as an upgrade and graduating to the big over-fiddling with my phone league. Just in time to post random nonsense…as I breastfeed!! Now I am going to amuse myself with all the things i can do while I breastfeed. Oh, and there’s a post coming on how I brought that up at the breakfast table this morning. Hilarious. Thanks for entertaining me Tania.
Love,
Shalagh
Lovely post as always Mrs H…thank you for sharing your wise words, support and especially nonsense
Here’s to way more nonsense in the new year Mrs. S.
Love,
Shalagh
Shalagh, it has been a privilege to share this writing journey with you my new found friend. I wish you only the best in 2013 as you shine even more!
Right back atcha Amy.
Love,
Shalagh