Pleasure & Heartache

When I began blogging almost three years ago, I solicited some guidance from my oldest niece who works in publishing. Aside from her suggestions, I also recall her saying most non-celebrity bloggers, following an initial flurry of posts, give up fairly quickly or, if they do continue, their output falls off radically. I remember thinking - that will not be me.

And though I have (obviously) not given up and my output so far has increased each year, I can now envision how it could have gone the way my niece predicted, my arrogance notwithstanding. The strategy I've used some days when thinking of giving up has been to write about exactly that. Don't all of us think about giving up something that gives us a mix of pleasure and heartache? Not surprisingly, I get few comments on those somber musings.

On the darker days? I wait for it to pass and use my journal. What do you do when the heartache temporarily outweighs the pleasure? Sometimes I'm caught off guard, noticing a somber post has attracted some attention. Because it's impossible to know if someone is actually reading a post unless they tell me so or comment, I don't read anything into that attention. But it does help me get ready to begin again. Thank you for that.