My 1,000th Post

This is my 1,000th post on this blog, and still I'm not really sure how to approach it.  I started this blog on December 29th, 2007 with a post called Reflections.  The post was a re-post of a piece I had written for what was then Associated Content.  It was the first installment of a series about the end of my relationship with Joe.  When I posted the piece, my intentions for this blog were to promote my various pieces all in one place.  Well, the blog has definitely changed since then!

In the months that followed that first post I would re-post other pieces I'd written, but the posts were sporadic at best.  Then in January of 2011, things began to change.  It was another sort-of breakup that got me going in a different direction with John's World.  For the first time in my life, at the age of 45, I got hurt, and as before I turned to writing to work out my emotions.  I began to post music videos and depressing feeling-sorry-for-myself novellas.  On New Year's Day, I penned A new start for an online journal, spelling out my first change in direction for this blog.  

I went on this way for months, spilling my guts out and interspersing it with sad songs, and you know what?  I started getting hits to John's World.  In April, I decided to write a post that tried to define just what this blog is.  I'm going to re-post much of A defining post here, because after reading it again, I'm glad to say it still works:

Traveling down this road, Watching the signs as I go

I think I'll follow the sun, Isn't everyone just

Traveling down their own road, Watching the signs as they go

I think I'll follow my heart, It's a very good place to start

I posted these words on my Facebook page earlier tonight. They’re from Madonna’s song “Sky Fits Heaven,” which is from her 1998 “Ray of Light” album. To me, it’s one of her best albums and this is one of my favorite tunes off of it. As I listened to the words for the umpteenth time, something clicked inside of me.

For a long time I’ve been thinking about this blog and how to define it. Many of my friends who run blogs all have a niche they write in. My niche has been hard to define. For months, my tag line has been “I’m just a regular guy trying to get through life…” Well, yeah, that’s true, but how am I getting through it? What’ exactly is my journey and how and why do I share it here? The answer for me lies within these lyrics.

We all travel down our own roads. I believe that probably more so than most, and I live my life in my own way, never worrying about conforming to expectations. I am always following the sun, looking for my own happiness, whatever that may be and I’m not usually afraid to try. Of course, signs are all around us, all around me as I travel down the road of my life and more often than not it is my heart rather than my head that I follow. Whether or not things go the way that I want them to, I’ll never waver in my journey, and for that I’ll have no regrets.

So what is this blog about? It’s about me. It’s about all of the things and the people and the places that I encounter along my way, and the signs that I choose whether or not to obey. Right or wrong, I am me, and I’m living my life the best way I know how. In a way, I’m slowly painting a picture of the landscape of my life through the words and images I share here, and I hope it serves others somehow. 

I’m going to continue to share myself with those of you who continue to read this blog. I’ll continue to share the songs and the music I love so much. I’ll continue to talk about the people in my life who help to shape what it is and what it will become, good or bad. And I’ll continue to impart my feelings on the world as I see it, for its troubles and its beauty. This is my long-awaited mission statement. 

So yeah, that's John's World, and this is my 1,000th post, with almost 300K page views.  I'm grateful to anyone who checks in on me from time to time, and especially those who read me on a regular basis.  Take care!

Tweet