The End of an era...

Hello.

It's been a while since I posted anything on my blog.
I took some "time out". I took time to step away and reflect.

I began blogging almost 6 years ago. This blog has undergone many changes both in terms of it's look and in the voice that it echoes. Like anybody's life, mine has undergone some big changes which ultimately changed me(I would hope for the better). I needed this blog for a long time. I needed a place to call my own, a place to have an outlet, a form of expression, a way to share things. It was fun, I enjoyed it.
The feedback motivated me to keep going. As time went on, the feedback got less and less, it seemed the more I posted, the less responses I got.

I always used to say, that I started this blog for me. And that still stands. I did. I blogged for me and because I got such a sense of achievement and joy from it. The added bonus that people were reading my blog and commenting on the inspiration and happiness it brought them, motivated me to keep blogging and keep sharing and gave me a greater reason to continue. In a way I felt obligated, feeling the pressure to carry on as best I could, posting to share and inspire.

The more time I spent away from my blog recently, the more I came to realize that I wasn't happy with posting on it anymore. I wasn't happy to be giving and sharing and feeling like I was talking into thin air.
I didn't (and don't ) know why people stopped commenting. Perhaps my blog had become boring, stagnant, same-old, same-old. Perhaps I had lost my ability to inspire others. Maybe people just don't have the time to comment anymore, maybe my posts don't generate any feelings worthy of responding. Perhaps  some just don't realize how a blogger values and needs comments as a way of saying " I heard you. I was listening."

It's made me realize that this blog is and has always been just a tiny fraction of me. A small part of who I am.
It doesn't portray or tell the real story of my life. It doesn't show-case the real joys and loves of my life-my children, my husband, my family, my faith. And that is a decision I choose when I started to blog. I wasn't comfortable sharing those things with virtual strangers. I still am not and never will be.

This blog was meant purely as a creative outlet, to share makes and my photography and places I have visited. Along the way, I have met people (virtually) who supported me and encouraged me and for who I am very grateful for. To these ones (who know who you are) I say thank you for the comments and email's and for everything. For believing in me and giving me something to smile about and make me feel my blog wasn't a black hole in a vast universe.

So the time has come for me to go. I feel no desire anymore to blog. I realize that in this virtual world my tiny little absence of presence will not be felt or missed. And I do not bemoan that. The world is a vast place and with so much to entertain people, twitter, instagram, pinterest, other blogs, who am I? I do not demand attention. That is not who I am. But I cannot also carry on sharing and feeling no validation for it. It's a natural thing to want a little bit of recognition, for someone to say " I hear you." I feel as if my voice is drowned out by the waves of media that wash over it.

I am going to leave my blog open. My hope is that along the way, people who stumble across it will perhaps find something that will help them, make them smile or inspire them.
I will always create, it's who I am. I am a sharer and a giver. Doing both makes me happy beyond measure. But I realize that I can do this anytime and it doesn't have to be via this medium.

Thank you for reading if you got this far....

I didn't want my blog to stand open with no "end page". With no Final word. Like a book left open...

I will still be on pinterest, pinning away...you can still catch me on email if you feel like it. I am still selling on Etsy and hello pretty. I am still living my life as a wife and mother and daughter and friend and taking photographs and creating.

Take care now....
xxBonnie.