Let’s do the Time Warp again!
Welcome to the eleventh installment of my blog hop/writing exercise called Time Warp Tuesday here on Four of a Kind!
For those not familiar with Time Warp Tuesdays, here is the background of how and why I came up with the idea. If you are here to participate and link up your post, you can do so with the Linky Tools at the end of this post (or if you have any difficulty using it, you can share the link to your post in the comment section here).
The gist of Time Warp Tuesday is to revisit and share some of our favorite blog entries from our archives and reflect on our journeys since we wrote them.
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The theme for this week’s Time Warp Tuesday is: Blogging
Note: Special thanks to Esperanza from Stumbling Gracefully who suggested this week’s topic! If you have an idea for a future Time Warp topic, theme and/or writing prompt, please feel free to share it in the comment section or send me an email. If I choose to use your idea, I will give you credit and link to your blog that week.
Why did you pick this post? What kind of response did you get from readers in regards to your post? Has your perspective changed since the day you wrote your original post? Do you think you would still feel the same way if you were writing your post today? What have you learned about yourself, your family and your life since you wrote your original post?
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Time Warp Tuesday: Blogging
This was one of those weeks where from the moment I chose to use Esperanza’s topic idea, I knew exactly which blog entry I would revisit and share here today. The post that I picked to reflect on is one that I wrote earlier this year, in April, on my 4th Blogoversary:
4 Years of Blogging: Things I Have Learned
Please go and read the post that I am reflecting on today (and comment if you choose), if you haven’t already, and then come back here to see what I have to say about my journey since I wrote it.
***Here is where you left off before you stopped to read my old post.***
This is one of my favorite blog entries that I wrote this year and I am still very proud of it. My post truly captures all the wonderful and difficult things that I have learned through my experience blogging over the past four years and counting.
As for the response I received, to be honest, I wish I had gotten more comments and feedback on it. However, I am grateful for those who did take the time to share their thoughts about my words and congratulations on reaching this milestone on my blogging journey. Selfishly, one of the reasons I chose to revisit this post this week, in addition to being proud of what wrote, is in hopes that more people will get the chance to read it (and hopefully choose to comment), who may have missed it the first time around.
Not a lot has changed since I first shared this post here (other than my family and I moving and adjusting to life in our new home back in July) and thus I do feel pretty much the same way today about my experience blogging as I did when I wrote it eight months ago. That said, I appreciate the opportunity to revisit this blog entry and reflect on what I have learned over the past four years.
One of my favorite of the “24 things” that I shared in my old post was #6:
I have learned that I can apply my experiences during our five year journey through secondary infertility and loss to many other areas of life, especially when it comes to trying to be sensitive to and supportive of others who are going through difficult and uncertain times.
This continues to be one of the biggest take-a-ways for me when it comes to trying to make sense out of our journey through secondary infertility and loss, as well as what I have learned from my sharing about my life and experiences in this space.
It was especially helpful in recent weeks when the birth mother and father that my sister and brother-in-law had been matched with, in hopes of adopting their baby, had a change of heart after their daughter was born and decided to parent her. I truly believe I have been better equipped to support my sister through this difficult time in her life after my own journey trying to build our family did not go as I hoped it would or thought it could.
Thank you for reading and for doing the Time Warp with me this week. I look forward to your feedback about this post, as well as reading and commenting on all of yours. Please feel free to comment even if you didn’t write your own Time Warp Tuesday post this week. It is not too late to participate if you are interested, click here for the details.
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The topic for next week’s Time Warp Tuesday is: ‘Tis the Season
“‘Tis the Season to be jolly” or at least that’s how the song goes… For some it is “the most wonderful time of the year” and others it can be bittersweet because it reminds us of those who left this world to soon or brings back other memories that aren’t always happy ones. For many of us this holiday season is filled with mixed feelings of joy for “what is” and sorrow “what might have been.”
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and/or another holiday this time of year, choose a post from your archives where you talk about the holiday season. Maybe you have written in the past about a holiday tradition that is important to you or blogged about the feelings and emotions that this time of year evokes in you. Then write a new post on your blog about why you chose the post that you did and what has happened in your life since.
Participants can write about whatever you want in your new blog entries. However, for those who might need some help and inspiration to get started, here are some questions to consider:
Why did you pick this post? What kind of response did you get from readers in regards to your post? Has your perspective changed since the day you wrote your original post? Do you think you would still feel the same way if you were writing your post today? What have you learned about yourself, your family and your life since you wrote your original post?
Note: If you have an idea for a future Time Warp topic, theme and/or writing prompt, please feel free to share it in the comment section or send me an email. If I choose to use your idea, I will give you credit and link to your blog that week. Thank you to all who have already shared suggestions for future weeks! I do plan to use more of your ideas soon, but thought it would be nice to do another “holiday themed” Time Warp next week, which Jen from Here We Go Again suggested (to do holiday themed topics at the appropriate times of year). Thanks Jen!
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For those new to Time Warp Tuesday, here is a quick recap of how it works:
1) Browse through your old blog entries to find one that fits the topic for the given week. The topic is shared at the end of the previous week’s “Time Warp Tuesday” post here on my blog (see above for next week’s topic).
2) Write a new blog post in which you introduce, link to and then reflect on your journey since you wrote the older blog post and put it up on your blog on Tuesday. Please include this link http://chicagobensons.blogspot.com/search/label/Time%20Warp%20Tuesdays in your blog entry, so your readers can find their way to my post with the list of other participants, in case they would like to read more or participate themselves.
3) Share the link to your new post here on Tuesday and then visit, read and comment on the other blogs.
4) After you have done all of these things, you are welcome to grab the code for the the Time Warp Tuesday button by clicking here and put it on your blog. The link will take you to a Google Doc where you can copy the code. If your browser does not allow access to your computer’s clipboard, you can use Ctrl-C for Copy and Ctrl-V for Paste, or use your browser’s Edit menu.
5) Check back here every Tuesday to find out the new topic, theme or question for the following week (I welcome your ideas and suggestions) and then return to Step 1 of this recap to participate.
Please let me know if you have any questions and I hope to see you back here on next Tuesday when we’ll “do the time warp again!”
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Thank you again for reading, commenting and participating in my Time Warp Tuesday blog hop. Link up below and click through to visit others who are doing the Time Warp! (If you have any trouble with Linky Tools, please share the link to your blog entry in the comment section.). Also, please don’t forget to comment on my post here, as I do not have a link to this (my own) post below, but I would still really appreciate your feedback. xoxo
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
That's such a good point about learning and being able to use that knowledge in situations that might have left you feeling helpless otherwise. It's tempting to try to wall off bad experiences and never face them, but everything that happens to you is connected, if only because it all happens to you.
I am sorry to hear about what happened to your sister, but I'm glad she has family like you to care so much about her and try to make this easier.
Thank you for your thoughts and kind words. So glad that you decide to do the Time Warp again this week! I really enjoyed both of your posts about blogging. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
This part of you post really spoke to me: "As for the response I received, to be honest, I wish I had gotten more comments and feedback on it. " because I've felt that way so many times. It's hard not to feel disappointed when you take the time to share something and people don't respond. I never take it personally, I know there have been so many times I've meant to comment on a post and then not found the time or eventually forgot. Still, it's disappointing. I guess we need to lower our expectations… 😉
Thanks for using my prompt today. I appreciated looking back on my blogging experience once again. I'm sure I'll continue returning to this topic in the future…
Thanks for suggesting this week's prompt Esperanza, it made for very interesting reflection and discussion! Good for you not taking lack of or limited response personally. That is something I struggle with. I agree that we need to lower our expectations.
Which reminds me about the question you posed in the comment section of the post I am reflecting on this week, I will got back and answer it there too, but in a nutshell, though I have learned that the more expectations we have the easier it is to be disappointed, that doesn't mean I don't ever have them. I just try not to project/anticipate as much and live more mindfully in the moment (so much easier said than done).