Belated Happy Blogiversary to Me

As I was making the changes to my template, wondering if I wanted to make more drastic changes, I was thinking about when I first started this blog.  It was 6 years ago in August.

I wrote then that 'terrible things' had happened in my family the previous two and a half years. It's hard to go back and read that and remember quite vividly the day I started the blog, the feelings and hope I had. I want to go back and hug that woman,  who did not know that even more terrible things were coming, that bigger challenges were fast approaching.

That fall my mother tumbled swiftly down the rabbit hole of dementia and I became torn between her needs and the demands of my son and his drug abuse. The next spring, our Patrick died.  Died. (And writing this still makes me feel I've been punched in the stomach, gotten the wind knocked out of me.)

And I blogged.  I tried to keep the very personal to a minimum because I wanted this blog to be mostly about my creative work. But there's a place where one's life events and one's art intersect and sometimes the place should be revealed.

I know that it was good that I had this blog, that I could put my sorrow into words and share it.  I received comfort and warmth from  friends and strangers and, in sharing my story, I think I gave some back to others who are walking the path of grief and loss.  And that was also a gift to me.

I want to thank everyone who reads my blog, regularly or occasionally, and everyone who takes a moment to make a comment when something delights them or touches their own experience.

So I don't think I'm going to drastically change the appearance of Lizards in the Leaves, it's got the face of a familiar friend.  Maybe a tweak here and there. And maybe more of a connection between this blog and my de-cluttering blog, A Chair Is A Closet. 

I might let a little more personal come through  in the content- I turned 60 last month, and it feels like a big deal, and I'm acknowledging that by making some changes, a lot of them of the 'letting-go' variety.

I think that's story worth sharing, too.
Namaste, my friends!