What is a blog?

Recently I read Tania's post about rising early and the mundane ordinariness of Monday mornings and once again I felt that soft collision of connection between the two of us. In reality, we're worlds apart - geographically, in age and culture, and probably many other things, and yet there is something that I recognise in Tania. I'm not sure if it's my life now or memories of my past but that warm recognition I see in Tania's blog and the way she writes about her life is familiar, comforting and reassuring. 

I didn't realise it until I snapped back to reality but I sat there starting out the window after reading the post, trying to find the reason for the recognition. The sun was still on the rise behind some pine trees, making bright shadows on the front garden and highlighting spider webs that otherwise would have gone unnoticed. Tiny golden leaves fell from one of the trees near the house and a Sacred Kingfisher swooped down at one point to pick up a grasshopper.

How do we make a connection like this to someone we don't know? 

Blogs are strange things. I've been thinking about them a lot lately because of the blogging workshops we've just finished and have been trying to define just what a blog is. At the most basic level a blog is a way of recording one's thoughts in a similar way you'd write a diary. Most blogs are glaringly public though. They're a form of expression, like a book or a letter to a friend. They're a record of life.  They're a way of getting public recognition. They can be a business for those who spend a lot of time on their blogs and have something to sell - be that their thoughts or products.

And what of all of us who write blogs? Having met a few hundred people in the past month who are new to blogging, I know now from that small sample that bloggers can be anyone. They are young, middle aged, old and older. There are many people who want to record family life or their travels as well as many who just want to blog and see what happens. And there are the business bloggers.

My hope for all of those new bloggers is that they develop a community of people who "get" them. People who they might never meet but feel they know, just like me and Tania. Had someone told me years ago such a relationship could be had on the internet and that real friendships could be formed, I would have thought "pffffffft, as if". But it happens all the time.

I think I'm one of the luckiest bloggers on the web. I have you and this wonderful community of like minded folk who drop by, say hello, write emails, send gifts and cards in the post - right now I have Courtney's borage seeds winging their way to me (thanks Courtney). People leave comments to share what they know and to make a contribution to the continuing conversation we have here. This blog, and I think Tania's blog, started off as solo efforts but have both developed well beyond that. We now have a thriving and thoughtful community online and that is a beautiful and powerful thing.

How has your blog developed over the years?