A Colourful Life: Eight years of Blogging

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” 
― Anais Nin

A few days ago WordPress wished me a “Happy Anniversary”. It was my blog’s eighth Birthday; I have been blogging for EIGHT years. It does not feel like long ago I was writing THIS blog post on six years of blogging.

Eight years and 419 blog posts in, I can only say that I’m so so proud of myself for continuing to write. I don’t always feel like it, but for the most part, it’s very much a concrete part of my life now. 
I write to express how I’m feeling, to make sense of my life and to document my experience as a mother. If I haven’t written for a few days, I feel disconnected from myself. Writing grounds me. I need it. (Read more about Why I Write here.) 

Many bloggers are only posting on their Instagram accounts now, which I can understand, but I still prefer getting my words out onto my actual Blog page. It feels more spacious so I find the reading easier, plus I like seeing the blog post archives grow. (It’s much more straightforward to click on “December 2016” in my archives and see all the blog posts I wrote then and be able to click on one than attempting to scroll back to December 2016 on my Instagram posts. Plus, there’s a character limit on Instagram.) 

I love discovering new blogs on WordPress and connecting with other bloggers. Often the connection will be over something seemingly small, like a shared love of a certain author or book, but then you’ve discovered someone you’ve got something in common with, and later might find posts on their blog that resonate with you for whatever reason. I’ve connected with numerous other mothers over the years, each relating to something I’ve written, and that alone gives me the push to keep writing.

Documenting my life this way helps me reflect on how far I’ve come and how fortunate I am. The Colourful Kind began when I was just 21, and I will be 30 next year, so it’s been my main creative outlet throughout my twenties. I have every intention of continuing into my thirties and beyond; I will never get bored of hitting Publish.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” 
― Ernest Hemingway