Today is the first anniversary of my blog! Ta da! From my first posting, The Beach, on January 26, 2011, when I chronicled three-month-old Fergie’s first visit to the—

Wait a minute, that was TWO years ago! I missed my first anniversary!! Actually, now that I think about it, I must’ve I ignored my first anniversary because I was embarrassed by my puny output.  I didn’t exactly take to blogging. In fact I found it daunting. I had just completed a memoir about the breakup of my marriage, which of course is all about what makes me tick. But it hasn’t been published. Yet. And when it is, well, that will be another thing. A whole other thing for which I brace myself. But here I was faced with writing about myself again, this time writing on the fly, on a daily or at least a monthly basis.  What to write about? What more did I have to say? Who would care?

Gritting my teeth, I launched forth. It wasn’t too much fun. I persisted. It took over a year to realize that I was learning new writing skills, that I was becoming more facile with this shorter form, which were essentially essays, what Phillip Lopate calls “a movement toward honesty.” And isn’t that what it’s all about on every level in one’s life, aren’t we all trying to move toward honesty? It never stops. In the process, I realized I did have something to say, hopefully something that is universally appealing.

And then there were all the new friends I made and the old ones with whom I reconnected for which I am eternally grateful.