Writing Full Circle

This week, my cousin Tina asked me to join her online writing circle, (Drew Writing Project: Digital Literacies Collaborative), to talk about my blogging journey.  When she asked me, I immediately said yes.  Then in the hours right before my talk, I worried that I wouldn’t accurately explain how my blogging life came to be.

To explain my journey adequately, I need to pause and describe the journey my cousin and I have taken to become friends.  We are ten years apart in age, I am the older cousin. Our fathers were brothers.  My father is alive and well at the age of almost ninety-eight.  Tina’s father died when she was three.  He was taken way too early from his young family.  Uncle Julie, as I called him, was full of spirit and generosity.  He doted on my sister and me, and we loved him so very much. He took me fishing, bought me my first 3-speed bike, and always brought us the first strawberries and peaches of the season.  He was in construction and could fix anything that broke in our house.  Many times, my mother would secretly call him to come and fix the washing machine or refrigerator or generator that my father had just “fixed.”  He was always calm and had a golden smile and twinkling eyes.

When Uncle Julie died, our two families drifted, and I didn’t get to see Tina again until she was a mother with two young children.  Tina became close to my mother and father, and it was only until then that we began to speak to each other.  In the ensuing years, we continue to find out how similar we are to each other.  We both are teachers, love to write, garden, and make art.  We think very much alike, and I feel in these past few years that I have found my long-lost little sister.  When Tina and I talk together, the conversations are long and full of laughter.  In variably we are surprised that the other one feels or thinks the same way on so many topics.  I was very much honored that Tina invited me to speak to her writing circle, and I wanted to make sure I presented my blogging journey accurately..

I have always thought of writing as connection: the writer’s connection to the readers, and readers connections to the writer’s ideas.  Those ideas connect a myriad of other readers and writers, and the circle continues to expand exponentially.  My blogging began in earnest  in 2016.  I just started to write about my teaching experiences.  As I was learning the blogging process, I began to read a wide assortment of blogs. I wrote sporadically from 2018 to 2020.  In April 2020, I responded to a blog that Ruth Ayres wrote, and she invited me to post my blog on one of her sites SOS: Sharing Our Stories.

Ruth was the catalyst for my blogging life.  She has been very supportive, inviting me to more and more writing opportunities. Ruth is the editor of Choice Literacy, an online teaching magazine. She has a website called Ruth Ayres Writes.  She knew that for me to grow as a writer, I would need to connect to a community of writers. Ruth’s faith in me made me become a more deliberate writer. I now write articles and book guides for Choice Literacy because Ruth got to know me as a writer.

When I began writing weekly, people began to respond to my posts, and I began to read more and more bloggers.  I joined another online blogging community,  Two Writing Teachers. Stacey Shubitz co-founded Two Writing Teachers with Ruth Ayres. The site centered on the teaching writing workshop.  Ruth stepped away from the blog in 2013. Stacey continued on her own with a new team of co-authors with the same goal of supporting writing workshop. Stacey also blogs on her site, Raising Literate Humans.

I regularly share my posts on TWT’s Slice of Life Tuesdays.  Through Two Writing Teachers I met several bloggers, and they told me about Ethical ELA, a website, which was founded by Sarah Donovan. They also have many Open Writes with prompts for bloggers to post their writing and receive feedback.

I want to thank Ruth Ayres, Stacey Shubitz, Sarah Donovan, and all the bloggers in these communities who have shared their writing lives with me and have given me much food for thought.  Also, I’d like to thank my colleague and friend, Molly James who encouraged me to start a blog in the first place. She blogs at Creativity Loving Educator. If you are a writer without a community, I encourage you to connect with other writers. Come join the circle!

Some inspiring bloggers I’ve met along the way!

• https://www.juliekcox.com/
• https://pleasuresfromthepage.blogspot.com/
• https://adayinthelifeof19b.blogspot.com/
• https://litbitsandpieces.com/author/litbitsandpieces/
• https://kimhaynesjohnson.com/2024/01/28/birdwatching/
• https://reflectionsontheteche.com/2024/01/24/this-photo-wants-to-be-a-poem-wonder/
• https://mitchteemley.com/2024/01/28/the-road-ahead/
• https://sittingbehindtheeightball.blog/2024/01/27/thursday-january-25-2024/
• https://glendafunk.wordpress.com/2024/01/21/stafford-challenge-week-2-poems-5-11-staffordchallenge/
• https://nixthecomfortzone.com/2024/01/26/why-i-take-pictures/
• https://franmcveigh.wordpress.com/2024/01/23/sol24-prompts/
• https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/2024/01/25/poetry-frida-ekphrastic-prompt-spotted-sandpiper/
• https://imaginethepossibilities.blog/2024/01/26/poetry-friday-january-praise/
• https://theapplesinmyorchard.com/
• https://newtreemom.wordpress.com/