Perspectives on Tulips and Blogging

Different patterns, different colours. I never realized that the inside of tulips differed so much. I can thank blogging for teaching me this fact. Blogging - when I stand back and examine the whole blogging phenomena with a dispassionate eye, it seems a little strange. And I can understand why some of my family and friends kind of roll their eyes at me when I talk about this blogger or that artist or this friend I met in....Florida, or Belgium, England, France, the east coast of the USA or a hundred other places when all the time I've been sitting up here in my little office/studio on an island off the west coast of Canada.

And while blogging can absorb - in a flash - exorbitant amounts of time, I've learned to be careful and to exert a little self-discipline in my blogging. But, just like looking at a tulip through the eyes of a camera lens, blogging has given me a different perspective on the world. Sometimes I feel quite alone. I have few "real" "in-my-life" people who share my passion for decorating, for creating, for just playing with paint, paper and glue. I used to have more of those kinds of friends when I lived overseas, but here in the city where I now live, everyone is too busy, or worries about doing everything perfectly the first time rather than just experimenting and having fun. Perfectionism kills creativity. I'm thankful for my daughters who share my love of "making things" just for the joy of creating.

But I was beginning to wonder if I was really weird, and I started feeling like I should suppress all that. Then I discovered blogs. And a whole new world of inspiration and creativity opened up to me. A world filled with colour and form and play! I drank it in like a greedy patch of dusty ground. I've been inspired to take risks, to create, to dare to experiment. And I've become more sure of my own creative abilities in doing so.

And when I stand back and look at the big picture, I see an enormous bouquet of fellow bloggers who are just like me, only different. Just like a bouquet of tulips - the same, but different. Blogging, for me, has become a way to meet people who are generous, loving, encouraging and inspiring. It's a way of connecting in our disconnected world. And I wonder sometimes what the anthropologists of the future will say about blogging. For me, for now, it's a very good thing.

One wonderful blogger, Joy of Cupids Charm, is hosting a gathering with the theme of "Why I Love Blogging." I'm looking forward to reading other blogger's thoughts on this topic. And if you are interested, please visit Joy's blog on Friday, May 1, 2009. There's about 80 bloggers who will be sharing their reasons for loving blogging.