Tuesday, September 3, 2019

Happy Blog Anniversary to Me - - Maybe



Leaves & Branches began in 2010 when I talked to my daughter about genealogy & told her I wished I could reach out to people who may be connected to our family in order to learn more about those people. My daughter showed me options; listened to my ideas; got me set up & showed me how to add new posts. A big thanks to her!

Over the years, I wrote about many different branches of our family and met some distant cousins. We have shared photographs, stories and documents. It has been an educational and enjoyable experience. 

I joined GeneaBloggers & made buddies of fellow bloggers. I enjoyed reading & commenting on other blogs. I learned tips and found support from fellow bloggers.

Recently, I have not been able to comment on other blogs. It rarely works. I often cannot comment on my own blog in response to comments left by visitors. It rarely works. I have checked my settings and do not know how to fix the problem. 

The number of visitors to my blog is down. Maybe it is a result of not being able to comment. Maybe my content or my writing needs improvement. Maybe my layout needs to be changed. Maybe the hours I spend writing my books takes away from my blog.

I need to decide if I will continue my blog. I could use the time to work on my website, Our Leaves & Branches, and the book I am writing, ‘Our Brown Roots’. 

As always with any posts, I welcome comments & suggestions. I do all read comments. 

I shared this last year & here it is again...



Suppose You Were the Only One


Suppose you were the only one who knew:
Your father liked to listen to freight trains passing his house when he was a boy.
At night he’d lie his blonde head down & listen to the trains rattling along the tracks 
and he’d count the long line of cars until he became drowsy and dreamed of trains.
Would you tell your son?

Suppose you were the only one who knew:
Your mother was a fearless freckled girl who loved to roller skate.
She lived in New York City and raced along the neighborhood sidewalks
with her long red hair flying as she jumped the cracks and laughed.
Would you tell your daughters?

Suppose you were the only one who knew:
Your tall dark haired grandfather liked to do magic tricks.
He kept shiny coins ready in his vest pocket and a smile on his face,
ready to make those coins appear & disappear and make children laugh.
Would you tell your grandson?

Suppose you were the only one who knew:
Your grandmother had long strawberry blonde hair.
She washed it with rainwater and brushed it one hundred strokes every night
and when she told you your hair was just like hers it made you feel very special.
Would you tell your granddaughter?

Suppose you were the only one who knew:
Your Irish great grandfather loved St. Patrick’s Day. 
He’d throw open all the windows of their New York City apartment
and he’d pound out Irish songs on their piano as he sang along & music floated out to the street.
Would you tell your nieces and nephews?

Suppose you were the only one who knew:
Your great grandparents in Ohio wrote love letters to each other.
She wrote about sewing and stringing popcorn for the tree & he wrote of planting and carpentry,
And love spilled out between the words. 
Would you tell your cousins?

Suppose you were the only one who knew the family stories.
Would you pick up a pen?

Colleen


Related Posts:




7 comments:

  1. Happy Blogiversary, Colleen. I for one would miss you if you stopped writing. Maybe just cut back a little, so you can fit in your other projects. I'm now writing less frequently, and giving the time to my many other hobbies. They say you should write 'regularly' to stay high up in a Google Search, but I still get plenty of 'cousin connects'. xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I’m glad you’re still here. Some time ago I had problems commenting too, and now I can’t remember what the glitch was but I searched in Blogger Help. It was a common problem with an easy fix. I still cannot comment from a phone though. Happy Blogiversary!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Colleen and happy blogiversary! I've also had the problems you've had in posting comments to other blogs. Today the comment looks like it will post but most of the time, I'm not so lucky. Looking forward to your future posts whenever you have the time to blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Colleen. Happy Blogiversary and please continue blogging. :) I've also had problems posting comments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, please don't stop blogging and sharing your family history! I just noticed this post after writing you via your comment form. Since you have my email address on that form, I'd like to invite you to reach out to me for help with your site. I've been building websites professionally since 2000 and am designing some new tools. I'd be happy to help solve your problems as it would give me some experience with this new type of data.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Happy Blogiversary Colleen!

    In my opinion blogging shouldn't feel like an obligation. When I stumble upon a story, I write a blog post. When I've got a lot of inspiration, I program blog posts to be published later. And when I don't have inspiration, or busy with other things, I just don't write for a while. It's important to have fun writing blog posts for it should be a hobby, not an obligation. That's my opinion.

    http://ancestralworld.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks, everyone! Wendy, I did go to Blogger Help. I changed from embedded comments to full page & because of that change I can comment here. I do not know about commenting on other blogs... Thanks also for the inspiration to keep going. It is nice to know my posts are read & make a difference to others. Bolggers are a wonderful, supportive group!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by my blog & for leaving a comment. It is always good to hear from visitors, cousins & fellow bloggers. Note that I do not publish anonymous comments.