How Blessings Brighten
February 11, 2006
Superchick :: 12×12 collage
On mornings when I wake up especially early and then fall back asleep, I always have the most intense dreams – dreams that feel physically real, dreams where I knew I was dreaming but would still bet a million dollars that they were really happening. In one dream a few years ago I was trying to reach out to someone, and I felt my hand trying to reach through the blanket that was over me. This morning I dreamt I was soaring over the Venice boardwalk, and I would swear that a tremendous breeze was blowing through our bedroom, throwing the sheets off of me and causing my arms and legs to lift above the mattress, making my feelings of being in flight that much more palpable. In the dream I thought to myself, "I know this is a dream but shit this is FUN!" Was I laughing in my sleep? I must have been…
This feeling of being lifted and carried is with me right now, not only because of this dream but also through all the love and support my friends and creative community are sending my way these days. What I am going through is not anything compared to what I have gone through in the past, but it is going to be an intense few weeks, and I know there are people out there who are thinking of me and emanating rays of positive energy in my direction. Let me just say for the record: I hear you, and I am glowing inside.
As someone who only began blogging regularly less than a year ago – my previous online journals were few and far between and not much more than small snippets of my life – I am still learning about all the different ways people blog, comment, communicate and share. Some people respond to everyone’s comments individually via email, some respond to everyone all at once in a new comment on their blog; there are themed blogs, blogs with and without ads (and varying degrees of approval for such ads), photo blogs and humorous blogs. I find the entire blogging world endlessly fascinating. I love what Popeye recently said of the blogging world:
"I still really don’t get it. I don’t really understand how we meet each other and find each other. I don’t know how these relationships build except in that we are able to speak here without interruption with the confirmation that we were heard and listened to when we read the comments."
I believe that one of the things we all want most of all is to be seen, to be heard and to be understood. I love telling my friend Tanya about all her little quirks that I notice; it is my way of letting her know I see her and I hear her and I appreciate everything she is. I have met many beautiful people through blogging and have received many wonderful words and thoughts through their comments. Let me say one more thing for the record: I read each and every one of the comments I receive on this blog, and most of them make me teary. They touch me very deeply. I never got into the habit of responding to individual comments via email, but I must admit I have become kind of a comment junkie – I love leaving them and I love receiving them. I love these tiny bits of sparkle that we all scatter out into cyberspace. Did you ever receive tiny notes from your mom in your lunchbox? I see blog comments like those – tiny tokens of affection, something no one can ever have too much of. I am truly impressed by those of you who do respond to individual comments via email – you are a better person than I am!
This week I shared beautiful emails with Kate and Alexandra. I got to yap on the phone with my dear friends Pixie and Melissa and a new friend named Sunny. I got to have lunch with Tanya and dinner with Nancy. In my mailbox I found a small yet nurturing gift from Alexandra and a beautifully decorated box full – FULL, I tell you – of treasures, including a wonderful work of art – from Kelly. I received kind words on this blog, and I finally got a full night’s sleep last night. I have a challenge before me, to be sure, but it is small compared to all of this warm, glimmering light that now surrounds me. Holy shit I am blessed. Holy shit.
"Like birds, whose beauties languish half concealed,
Till, mounted on the wing, their glossy plumes Expanded,
shine with azure, green and gold;
How blessings brighten as they take their flight"
-Edward Young
my kids make me say holy crap…shit is a
bad word in my house….teehee.
but i say holy shit is right!
bright blessings, indeed! in just a few short weeks i have developed about a 20 blog a day habit. i also LOVE leaving comments and LOVE getting them. it is a very good thing i do not have to report to a 9-5 job because i would never get there. my brother has his video game addiction and now i have blogging…wonderful!! i love you and you are in my heart.
I am smiling from ear to ear. It is fantastic that you feel so supported and loved in the midst of the challenges you face. That is beautiful.
I have had a group of friends since boarding school (there are 7 of us) and I just outed my blog to them…it felt so weird to share this piece of myself that not many people in my “real world” know about. Yet, I realize that the blog world and my real world need to be one world in some ways. Trying to explain this blog world was challenging. Yes, people I don’t really know leave me comments. Yes, I feel like they are friends. Yes, I share things with them that you may not know about me…yes, yes, yes.
The world of blogging is rather amazing! I find it so interesting that people are willing to open up their souls, share their dreams, voice thier insecurities, showcase their talents…all with the hope that someone is listening and watching…with the possiblity to make new friends along the way. I started my blog back in 2004 but have recently gotten back into writing as much as I can, and i view severl other blogs on a daily basis…i have made new friends and connections…it has been such a fun journey so far! I love reading your entries and viewing your art as well…you are so very talented and i aspire to reach your level of success someday (hopefully soon
…
Sarah Smith
http://waxing_poetic.blogspot.com
http://www.rusticrelics.net
I love the collage you posted. I never knew until now what kind of a community could could be built from blogs. It’s amazing.
i can’t imagine my day without strolling through several blogs, especially this one. it is odd, isn’t it? this way we have of connecting to each other. i’m so thrilled when someone leaves a comment for me.
swirly…i am new to the blogging world and i have received such a powerful source of love, inspiration, support and community amongst other bloggers (mostly sister-bloggers). i appreciate you so much.
Hi Christine! I loved this post — my own blog is very new and a kind of compulsion and I loved to hear you admit to being a comment junkie! And as for the wonderful threads of connection that are spun through the ether, it is still a novelty and a marvel to me, all these wonderful women, all these creative souls, I keep visualizing it as a big world map with little sparks lighting up all over it and finding each other. Yours was the first blog I started reading – so thank you for sucking me in!
-Laini
As a fellow blog & comment junkie, i echo so many of the thoughts that you voice here today. Blogging is what’s kept me from sinking to the bottom of the mire during a currently challenging time. Furthermore, I have a wonderful community of women that I share with in real life, and I have taken to referring them to particular blogs (like yours and Superhero, SelfTaughtGirl and GrannyGotAVibrator) so that the inspirational words i read here are further shared even by those who don’t spend much time on line. These journals are marvelous for circling with our sisters and weaving an electronic web of support and blessings.
Vive la Blog!
Sometimes I wonder if this is all reincarnation–the meeting of old and new souls. How else can this instant connection be explained? I don’t know. Or perhaps there’s something about energy and the wavelength of it and how one person’s energy and another, vibrating at similar wavelengths, can travel across thousands of miles and through CATV cables and phone lines.
I don’t know. But it’s amazing!
this is beautiful. i want to be a part of this community. this community of encouragment and truth and honesty. im trying but im still on the edge. you make it seem so mystical since i am still on the outside of it all, but im gonna try to make it into the side of the blogging word as you describe it. it seems as though you all have these people holding you up when you are down and encouraging you when you need a push to keep going. its beautiful
Your blog was one of the first I read, having discovered it through Keri Smith’s, and it was one of my most treasured blessings of 2005 Christine. Truly, truly, and truly again. I hope that all of the support you receive here reinforces what you already know, that you are an amazing woman, writer/artist, and friend.
And new to blogging myself, I am astonished at the kindred souls I have found here, and in such a short time. And the support people extend to one another here, people whom have never met in person and yet know one another’s heart and soul quite intimately. I keep learning in ever wider and ever deepening circles that I was never as alone or as different as I might have once assumed. This is a beautiful thing we women have going here! I only wish I had known of it sooner!
That’s really nice! I love that shade of pink…
Oh I have been away for awhile. Very endearing post. It is great to get nice messages-it is almost like your own private cheering squad. It also helps especially on those blah days. Great stuff Swirly. Cheers!
I also love comments..leaving little pieces of me behind, and reading those pieces left for me. I love when a comment can make me think of things in a new light.
look a little deeper in your luchbox–next to the note from your mom, I have placed a ziplock baggie full of chocolate kisses just for you!