Photo credit Markus Spiske via unsplash.com

Recently I had some web-hosting issues that resulted in access problems – for you and me.  One day I was merrily blogging away, the next I couldn’t get in and couldn’t work out what the problem was or why it occurred. Many hours of “online chat” and contact with the Support centre and I’m back.  What surprised me was how much I missed it!

Benefits of blogging
I enjoy blogging and have put a lot of effort into writing and presenting material. When my blog was “down”, and it looked like I may have “lost everything” … it really hit me. This writing that I do and have done, is important to me. The thought of losing hours of work was devastating. But it was more than that. I felt like I had lost a part of me.  It got me thinking about the personal benefits of this process.

To blog = 
To share
To connect
To create
To inspire
~ The Gingerbread Gem

There are many people who extol the virtues of blogging from a marketing and profiling perspective. These usually run down the lines of increasing your credibility and showing up more in google searches. The benefits that resonate with me more, are personal growth, improving writing skills, getting ideas, become conscious of choices and realising dreams.

It’s personal
Blogging is personal. I invest a lot of energy and put a lot of myself into my posts. When I “lost” my blog pages, I had the frustration of dealing with the technicalities of domain name servers, IP addresses and control panels. This was like communicating in a foreign language that you only have the basics of, but exchanging with a native speaker on “chat” or email. It was that scary feeling of being out of control and risking losing it all! There was almost a sense of grief at the thought of losing it all.

If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.
~ Lord Byron

The way I see it is that expressing views and ideas in posts is important. It is therapeutic. It helps you process things and sort them out. It is an outlet, an opportunity to explore, to create. It feels important to acknowledge these things. It’s a bit like “My name’s Mary, and I’m a blogger …”

Therapy over, let’s get back into action …
These moments of reflection have resulted in some lessons learned. Future plans for back-ups heeded. Technical knowledge is to be increased, or outside experts engaged. Communication skills for exchanging information about IT – a work in progress.

Enough. Back to blogging. Posts resume from now.

Please note that there may be some interruptions to my posting frequency in the days ahead as I make some changes to my service providers. The intention is to make them as smooth as possible.