the world is planted in pennies

When I signed back in to Google Reader
after my enforced absence
I realised that the little corner of Blogland
I have loved for the past five years
has become very quiet recently.

Not this blog, I hasten to add,
as you entertain us all, day after day
with your effervescent chat in my comment box.

It is my community of blogs that worries me.

My friends have new challenges
to absorb their time
and I am thrilled for them
but I miss their company.

Other friends have found that blogging
no longer fulfils the need that once existed,
compelling them to write and publish,
and have stopped writing altogether.
I miss them too.

There are new friends who find us
and join in the chat with enthusiasm
and sparkling new blogs
that we discover by accident
but I am afraid that I am not looking
in the right places any more
because new discoveries are rare these days.

Some bloggers continue to write year after year,
retaining a fresh authentic voice,
some blogs find fresh impetus
with new challenges for the writer,
other blogs last a short time
but leave a lasting impression.
They are all unique, all extraordinary.

Please don't think that I am referring to myself.
You are always very generous
with praise and encouragement.
I love writing and will continue to do so
while I have the time and the ideas.

I have realised how fragile Blogland is,
that it is vital that we value blogs and their writers
while they are there sharing their worlds with us.
Our imaginations would be a poorer place
without their enthusiasms and new perspectives.

*****

"If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity,
so that finding a penny will literally make your day,
then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies,
you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.”

Annie Dillard