Reflections on a Year of Blogging

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I started this blog! It’s been an amazing experience, far beyond what I expected.

One of the things I wanted to do after retiring from the military was to increase the number of books I read each year. The byproduct of reading and taking notes was a desire to write about what I was learning and express my opinions, and that’s how this blog came to be.

I’ve previously mentioned that my main interests are leadership, history, religion, current events, and social issues. Before starting this blog, I spent most of my time reading about those subjects, taking plenty of notes, and diving into research whenever I stumbled upon interesting facts or arguments. My fiction reading was focused on my favorite author, Isabel Allende, along with the occasional book by Gabriel García Márquez, Rosario Ferré, and Laura Esquivel.

Before retirement, I managed to read only about three to four books a year. A combination of being too busy with work and my slow, analytical reading habits hindered my ability to read more. But now that I’m retired, I have a lot of unstructured time, which is a beautiful thing. In my first year after retirement, I was able to read 13 books, and I’m setting a goal to increase that number. I’m really happy about that!

But something unexpected and pretty amazing happened during my blogging journey. I developed an interest in poetry and storytelling through words and photography—an outcome I hadn’t anticipated.

I’ve always said that the WordPress community is amazing, and it’s a place where you can engage in meaningful, intellectual discussions, which I love. That’s why I make a point to read the posts from my WP community—313 bloggers as of this morning. If you’re posting, I’m reading! How do I manage that? Well, as a confessed introvert and nerd, I use the inspectional reading technique I learned from How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren. This technique helps me read posts quickly, and when something really catches my attention, I move on to what they call analytical reading. When I read analytically, I usually leave a comment. Yeah, don’t ask me too many questions about why I do that—it’s just how my brain works. Needless to say, I love my WP community and hope we’ll continue together for years to come.

I’m also getting into the habit of engaging in the blogging world only from Monday through Friday, leaving weekends and holidays for other interests that I’m pursuing. If you don’t hear much from me during the weekends, now you know why.

In addition, I’m writing articles on Medium during the week because I needed to find a way to cover the WordPress and Medium membership fees without tapping into my retirement check. 😀 So far, I’ve been successful in that regard, and I hope it continues.   

There are so many people I’d like to mention, but the list would be pretty long—over 50 people I engage with weekly, learning and growing as a person through their writing. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Cindy Georgakas, a natural teacher, guide, and mentor. Through her writings and excellent book, Re-Create & Celebrate, she inspired me to start writing poetry and generously published my first poem on her blog. For that, I’ll always be grateful. And yes, she’s probably going to ask me where my next poem is, and all I can say is: It’s coming, Cindy, I promise.

I’ve always believed that to be a mentor, you don’t need to be physically present with the mentee. A lot of mentorship happens through writing, and the great thing about this kind of mentorship is that it isn’t bound by time or place. I told Cindy the other day that I consider her my mentor, and I hope she continues to write and inspire others.

I want to end this post by thanking all my fellow bloggers for your support over the past year. I’m learning so much from each of you and growing as a result. Recently, I read something from the Renaissance philosophical period: “The studia humanitatis (studies of humanity) of grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and ethics help develop well-rounded and effective citizens dedicated to an intelligent vita activa (active life).”1 This, my friends, is what you bring to my life every week, and I’m becoming a better person because of it.

  1. Grayling, A.C. The History of Philosophy. (P. 175) New York: Penguin Press, 2019. ↩︎

93 thoughts on “Reflections on a Year of Blogging”

    1. I really appreciate your comments. You’re absolutely right—blogging is more than just a website. To me, it’s a way to express your thoughts, a lovely community and an excellent collaboration tool. Thank you for reading and commenting.

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  3. Congratulations on your first year. I hope you continue and interact with the range of writing in the blogging world. And connecting! Blogging helped warm up my writing muscles for my desire to write a novel. And poetry is more playful. I like your time management too. Weekends off!

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    1. Thank you so much. I’m having a lot of fun blogging and connecting with others. It’s a great space to share ideas and learn more about the world. You’re right about how it helps with writing. The process of reading, researching, working on drafts, publishing, and then receiving comments and feedback is super helpful as I continue to improve my writing skills.

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  13. Congrats on your blog’s anniversary! Looking forward to reading many more of your great posts. You are so very right about the wonderful WP community, it’s absolutely amazing to find so many good and thoughtful people to interact with each day.

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  14. Happy blogging anniversary. Yes, this community is so wonderful. There are great people here where we can openly discuss their thoughts with. And love what you said about Cindy, she’s an incredible blogger and human being.

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  17. Congratulations, Edward, on your blog anniversary! Enjoying it and growing with it is what matters the most! WP community is indeed fascinating, at all levels. And in some way, it is quite amazing how our personal WP journey unfolds, leading us into new, never-explored grounds. I am grateful to have you as part of my meaningful connections on here! Your posts are always delightful and informative reading. For the next year, I want to read more of your personal poetry!! *Lights and blessings to you, my friend*

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    1. Thank you very much, Susana. It has been an amazing experience so far, and I really enjoy interacting with the community. Your Sunday post bring joy to my heart every time I read it. We’ll see where my poetry goes next this year, and thank you for the support. 🙏🏼

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  18. 1 year! … And, just getting started. It’s the regularity and perseverance of writing that builds the character to deepen and broaden our use of words that are lodged deep within us. You have done an amazing job in this regard so far.

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    1. Thank you very much, Joseph, for your kind words and encouragement. I really like this: “perseverance of writing that builds the character to deepen and broaden our use of words that are lodged deep within us.” Excellent! Thank you again.

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  20. Happy blogiversary! It’s so inspiring to read about how retirement gave you the time to dive into your passions—reading, writing, and now even poetry and photography. I also appreciate how you’ve shared your reading techniques like inspectional and analytical reading—definitely something I want to try! It’s clear how much you value the WordPress community, and your posts reflect that spirit of engagement. Looking forward to reading more from you, both here and on Medium!

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  22. Congratulations on your retirement, your one-year blog anniversary, and on your book reading accomplishment! 🎉 Thank you for sharing your special translated poetry project, your leadership articles and book reviews, and for your engagement. Best wishes to you going forward. 👏🏻

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    1. Thank you so much, Michele. I have been blessed by your writings, and I really look forward to reading more of your poems and the new book you are working on. After reading your novellas, I know your new book is going to be excellent. 🙏🏼

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  24. I am blessed by this post. I appreciate your engagement by commenting on the posts. It helps me not only tell my story but hopefully add to someone else’s. I made a decision to do the M-F writing and use my weekends as well for personal and other things. I have appreciated your writing and your storytelling. I so appreciate you sharing you sharing your father-in-law’s heart in poetry. I do look forward to more. Is a comment supposed to be this long? Lol…

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  26. Congratulations on your first year of blogging, Edward. I enjoy your posts and look forward to seeing more of them. I love this community also, although I have been slow to understand how to interact with others—the introvert quite often prevails! It’s a lovely process though.

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    1. Thank you very much, Lori. It takes a little time to figure out how to engage with the community and what to say. As an introvert myself, I completely understand. I don’t post every day because I want to have time to read other people’s posts and find that word, sentence, or idea that sparks my interest and gives me the opportunity to share something. Maybe the post is about a place I’ve visited, which gives me the chance to share my experiences. Sometimes it’s a poem that’s so beautiful that I feel the need to share which part I like the most. As you said, it’s a lovely process, and I’m glad to be here, engaging in a dialogue with you and others.

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  27. Happy 1-year blogging anniversary, Edward. You are a natural; I really enjoy your writing and your thoughtful topics. I started blogging shortly after I retired, too. It really does add a dimension to one’s life. And I also enjoy A.C. Grayling’s philosophy books! 😊

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  28. Congratulations, Edward❣️
    I can’t believe it’s already been a year that you have been posting. I remember what I think was your first post and being drawn to your writing and sharing such well composed posts right off the bat. You share so many things that truly educate and expand one’s thinking. Gosh, I need this technique by How to Read a Book by Adler and Van Doren!!!

    I am so honored and touched by your kind words, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I love that our work here transcends time and space and our connections bridge far and wide as we are all connected. It makes my heart sing to know that we can be mentors for each other on the deepest of levels without every having to see each other face to face. And thank you for the kind shout out of my book.

    I’m sooo happy you are writing poetry and how did you guess, I’ve been thinking of where your next piece was ever since but I knew it was coming and can’t wait to read it.😉❣️ You’re obviously a natural and your grandfather will be glad to know you are following in his footsteps.
    You’re smart to guard your weekends!
    We are lucky to have each other in our community and I’m grateful for your friendship.
    🙏🏼💗💓💗🙏🏼💗💓💗🙏🏼

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  33. Congratulations on a year of blogging, Edward! 😊 it’s nice when we open up our sphere of different “stuff” that we enjoy reading/creating. I always thought I’d just write about spirituality. Never really thought I’d be into poems or creating AI images. Now I love them. 🙏 glad to know you here and read your words 😊 keep up the great work 👏 👏

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  34. I enjoy your posts, Edward. Your posts have depth to them. They make me think. I also understand your growing interest in poetry. I’m sure you’ve grown from translating your father-in-law’s poetry. He was such a good writer. All the best to you.

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