1000 Posts, And Counting

I'm not sure how I will celebrate, but this blog post is the 1000th one that I have written. I started the blog in 2008. I had written a weekly column for the Progress-Advance newspaper in Pigeon, Michigan for a number of years when my children were growing up.

When my interest in blogging came along, I thought, "Gee, why not revive the defunct "Willow" name and try blogging?" My blog, "From Under the Willow," was born then. The first post on Monday, March 3, 2008 didn't even have a title. I was quite the newcomer to the whys and wherefores of blogging.

Fast forward a year or two to December 2010. I knew that my Dad always enjoyed reading my blog. I had the wild and crazy idea around Christmas time that maybe, as a gift for Dad, just maybe I could produce one blog post per day. I would stick to topics that would interest Dad, and then I could accomplish two things: first, a daily post; second, a followup email to my Dad which he would get to read every day.

By the end of January 2011 with 31 posts under my belt, I began to see my way forward. The discipline of writing every day was beginning to stick. At the beginning of May, as I wrote "Milepost Number 121," I knew that a year of blogging was possible.

My husband Ed (my proofreader) was totally supportive and began telling others about "Wanda's blog." And Dad, well he was enjoying the daily missives. My sister Mary, who saw Dad almost every day, said she would walk in the door of the farmhouse and Dad would immediately begin the conversation with, "did you see what's on Wanda's blog today?" It was always good for me to hear how much he followed my writing.

2011 came and went, and then 2012. The daily blog posts keep coming. There's a standard that I try to meet with the photography (600 x 400 pixels, photo should tell a story) and with the writing (clear, concise, always revise, always spellcheck). I carry a camera everywhere that I go and take advantage of photography classes that I think might improve my skills with a camera and with Photoshop. The blog is public, as it always has been, and is posted to Facebook and Twitter almost daily.

So, this is the 1000th blog post. My Dad died this spring and it has been tough to acknowledge that he is not seeing each daily post. Some day in the near future, I will change the blog sidebar which tells about my Dad and is sort of a forward to the blog. I expect that that day will come soon, but I am not pushing my father's memory too far away from my daily blogging yet. It is too soon to do that for me.

If you have come this far with me, dear reader, do let me know that you see Willow from time to time. It is good to have the support and feedback of readers. Who knows but what there could be another 1000 daily blog posts in my life and yours.

Blessings, from Under the Willow That Shades Us All.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler