It's one of nature's way that we often feel closer to distant generations than to the generation immediately preceding us. ~ Igor Stravinsky

"The blog has to fit around life, not the other way round".

I think it's been a few years since I stumbled across this absolutely beautiful blog by a lovely Irish woman named Ciara.  I noticed she hadn't posted in a long time but as I scanned down my sidebar to the blogs I enjoy checking out I noticed she'd finally updated hers.  How disappointed I was to read that she's contemplating shutting hers down, and I left her a comment telling her I hope she sticks it out.  She is such a wonderful writer and the way she incorporates her ethereal, gorgeous photography into each post has been such a delight.  I will miss her terribly if she does decide to leave her blog behind.

As I read each comment from her readers, the above quote really stuck with me, written to her by another blogger.  I've been writing my blog a long time as far as personal blogs go...it will be 7 years in April, and in the earlier years I wrote on an almost daily basis.  But Life never treads water.  I was a middle school lunch lady when I first began writing.  Then a secretary in a small gutter hanging company.  A freelance data entry person.  Then, in March of 2006, I began doing full time day care for my first grandson when he was a month old.  Two years later his little brother arrived and became a part of my daily routine, too.  My blog has morphed here, there, and everywhere since then.  The lack of quiet time to write, the busyness of my days, the weariness from  working 11 1/2 hours many days...they took a big toll on my blogging time.  I became very frustrated and even thought about closing down my blog as well but then I remembered why I'd begun blogging in the first place --  to keep a living legacy for my grandsons.  In the grand scheme of things, in the future when I'm no longer here and they have this record of my life and their involvement in it, I don't think it's going to matter to them how often or how 'wordy' I was as I wrote during these years.  What's going to matter is that I did write, that I chronicled their childhoods here and my part in them, the joy they brought to me, the deep love and special bond we've shared.  Hopefully things they read will trigger off long-forgotten memories.  Hopefully they'll read what I've written and remember me with the same fondness and love for me that I've felt for them.

So...when times come that are especially busy...when my thoughts and focus are scattered and I have a hard time reeling them in to write anything halfway coherent...when I get discouraged about how haphazardly I find time to write, when I get frustrated and think about tossing in the towel I remember that my blog isn't just for me.  My blog is for my family.  My blog is something I hope will keep the bond going between the generations from me on down the line.  If the world lasts that long, I hope some day my great-great-great grandchild will read these words and will think,  "Boy, that crazy old lady was really something, wasn't she?"  And even tho I'll be long gone and they'll never have the opportunity to meet me face to face, they'll know me thru my words.