I recently started blogging.

When we moved out of our house in January I did something VERY stupid. I had been keeping a daily journal since 1993. I had this box of books. One morning I asked myself if I really needed to keep them as we were getting rid of so much stuff in preparation for living in the fiver. Since Len was going to the recycling center that day, I loaded them up and had him toss them.

It took me one day to really regret my decision. But it was too late. I think of those journals often. So many memories were written down - birth of grandchildren, anniversaries, good moments and those not so good. I so very much regret that decision. Nothing can ever replace those journals.

FedExMan wrote:

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I blogged for a long time...then I stopped and just can't get back into the habit!!!

My blog was a way to let all my friends and family know what we were up to and where we were wandering to...

Since we have be tied down a bit with Grandpa, not a lot to say I guess....

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"And even if you found yourself in some prison whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories?" [Rainer Maria Rilke ~ 4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926]

There is always something to say...


Quote: "I keep mine so my kids will know what a goof I was. I hope that it stays around long after I am gone so my Grandsons will know who I was. Nothing says it more than my journal. All my grandparent memories are told to me by people that knew them..but still it would have been so cool to have had them left me a diary to read and know them better."

So true! Wish my own Gran Parents had kept a written Journal... with Grand Mother's Recipes unable today to really duplicate!


"I loaded them up and had him toss them."

Quote: "It took me one day to really regret my decision. But it was too late. I think of those journals often. So many memories were written down - birth of grandchildren, anniversaries, good moments and those not so good. I so very much regret that decision. Nothing can ever replace those journals."

That hurts... When we left 3 years ago, after my Son passed away, except for his Memories, I threw and sold everything. Meaning everything. Deleted all photos (except his). As if I was crossing into a new Path, which it was and still is, but... there is a bit of regret there also.

Be well...   Ara & Spirit

 

Before the internet there were:

Face to Face conversations
Letters and Faxes
Sitting in a friend or relative's living room and showing interest in their vacation slideshow
An hour a day to sit and read the newspaper
More hours to sleep
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias or trips to the library
Good TV shows
CB Radio
Answering Machines

.....no websites like RV-Dreams to get answers from !!!

We decided to start a journal (blog) of our trips and experiences as full-timers as a way for our family and friends to keep up with us and also to have a record for ourselves. It is a great place to add pictures of places/people we have seen along the way. Our experiences and places we visit may help somebody else. I know we have learned a great deal from reading other folks blogs. We have discovered places we want to visit by reading where others have gone. One added advantage is the great friends we have made via the bogs.

I guess I started to blog for more personal reasons. I wanted to document our lifes so we can look back in the future and remember what these days were like.

We are looking forward to retirement and starting our travels and maybe looking back on these times of working and struggling to get to where most of you are right now will keep our goal in perspective and help us appreciate what it means to live the lifestyle once we are able to be free.


-- Edited by Phil Bob on Thursday 22nd of October 2009 08:25:50 AM

I think many of us blog as a way to let family and friends know what we are up too. it is a way to share our lives with others. My husband would tell you we blog because I make him., which in a way is true. As we began making the changes getting ready to become full timers I saw the need to let our friends and family in on what was going on. My husband is a wonderful writer and for years I have been bugging him to write more, I wanted him to share his gift with others. Our lifestyle changes got him started. I previously had a blog but it was fairly blah - John makes people laugh. It is one of the things I love the most about him is how he keeps me from taking myself too seriously and finding the humor in life. He makes me laugh every day. I'm so glad he sharing that with others now.
Ara, I love reading your blog as do many of us, it gives us things to ponder and often gives us joy. I am so glad all those blogs are out there, it gives us so many views of life and that is enriching in many ways.

Janie

tumwatergal wrote:

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I'm actually writing 2 blogs.  One is about our lives as full time RVer's.  That doesn't mean traveling all the time, as when we were on vacation, and I share all aspects of our new life with family and friends.

My second blog is related to having a healthy lifestyle while being a F/T RVer.  This can be difficult as there are many temptations out there to lure us away from our goals of healthy living.  I post my success and failures as I try to "beat the statistics" of over a 50 lb. weight loss.  I also give my personal ideas on how to maintain a weight loss, and I post recipes from time to tome.  This blog helps keep me motivated on my goal.

Maybe you'll check both of them out???

www.bruceandmargiesfulltimejourney.blogspot.com
www.myhealthylivingthruweightcontrol.blogspot.com

 "so many views of life and that is enriching in many ways."

I will for sure read them out. "HEALTHY" is the key for sure and "ENRICHING"... I am myself finding out a lot about healthy living. I always have but as the years take on on, "healthier" becomes even more difficult. It is too easy not to cook and eat... junk! It is too easy not to go on for long hikes... I don't like Spirit on a leash and being a PIT more and more we seek for areas isolated (we are self contained for 10 days + much solar) so he can himself run... and I walk!
Now, if we could only have 48 hour days to read them all!!!
I really appreciate all the replies, it gives me much thoughts knwoing the diversity of everyone's purpose.
Let us know if ever near by Big Bend...
Texas that is....
Be well...
Ara & Spirit

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Like most everyone else we blog so friends and family from all over the U.S. can keep up with what we are doing and where we are.

There's no way we'll be able to remember all the things we did, all the places we went and all the people we met... so we need some sort of record we can go back and look at. It sure stirs the memories! Our blog is at http://rvroadtrip.us/

"It also serves as a place for me to vent my frustrations as many who read my blog know. Venting is a good thing as it allows us to get things that bother us out in the open. Open air often calms my spirit and allows me to see the world through better eyes than those clouded with my own emotions and frustrations."

I also personally feel above is a big part of it, specially when living alone with my Dog Spirit. It is as unloading what is inside of us and yes, it does get personal, but a Blog is personal. I guess it is the decision to share intimate thoughts or not. I read a few Blogs, they have been around for a while and I yet have no clue who really the "writer" is. It is of course a choice, no wrong or right.

Be well...
Ara & Spirit

The days have become shorter and colder. I wrote a few lines about my own original question as to why I write... Thanks for all the replies by the way.

Autumn Day

It is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.

Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.

Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.
[Rainer Maria Rilke ~ 4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926]

I just finished my monthly jar of "Nutella", one of my own extravagance along with roasting my own coffee. How can I relate this fact to any kind of philosophical approach when truly it is only to satisfy my taste buds and so "yes", I feel better. All these thoughts, nothing overwhelming so far, because at the same time reading one's comment about liking my photos and philosophical approach to Life transposed often into words.

I had this morning the always pleasant and enlightening stop over at my Friends up the road, Voni and Paul, her and I sat to talk a bit about it. She by the way does not care for Nutella, but instead "Chocolate Peanut Butter"... Too much information I think here. A few years back when Lance departed for his new World it was the start of my own falling apart. The treatment at the time resulted in major prescription medication consumption. Off and on, on and off, I started seeing the big picture of such intake consequences. Numb, less pain, zombie like passage from night to day never ending or even grasping their presence. But that all was only on the surface of the Life lived at the time, as Voni said it so well, Life surrounded with cotton balls as I will add, with a heart still bleeding but unable for it to flow.

I have always been a Spiritual person, trying to truly shed some light into my inner Life, one always to this day still filled with such and so many imperfections. I have always felt it being nurturing, compassionate toward the present moments, the common denominator being within even hovering under dark or light skies "to feel". To feel sad or happy, to cry or laugh, but "to feel" as a Human Being should and not pass over the path in a bottle tightly capped.

My own Mother herself is one that always disregards my Journal here as such "thoughts" should never be made public. I dare I? It is an opinion, maybe shared by many, I really don't know as within my Space I always continue writing as if for myself, my own prescription replacing the past blue and pink little pills. I feel healthier, mentally for sure and as my belief is mind over matter, I know also physically. The cards dealt cannot be changed, what can be changed is which ones to keep and which ones to throw back on this table present. So I deal, day after day, with no exception, just as everyone else does. The freedom is the path taken, this is what I have chosen for now as it seems even with at times physical and mental drawbacks, to be moving forward.

How can one not be in total admiration when so close to Mother Nature as I am living within her womb? How can one not be lifted when surrounded by such incredible people sending words worth the cure of many Lifetimes? It all however takes time, takes those moments of silence to meditate amongst such incoming thoughts as I realize "it" turning into a need as the only way for myself to live. I realized that fact when busy these past three days, when my mind lost it's priviledge to be on the nurturing and familiar thinking Spiritual path. I hungered for it, I almost was lost without it's direction. I can only hope everyone can find their Peace and Balance through their own quiet times surrounded with such beauty as I am within today.

There is a price to pay I realize. It is only a physical one to do without much of we had for some of us having been spoiled with throughout the past years. The importance of "this" and "that" goes away, awareness takes over, inbound, outbound, one which sometimes has been hidden in the long past we have had. All we can do is try. The past five years has been such a guilt carried with no interruption, the guilt of being here, a Father suddenly without a Son. That shadow never goes away, but the days often are brighter only because of this path taken, a path I don’t think anyone can disregard as it has been kind and rewarding for so many reasons coming my way. I am thankful to be here now, watching this Sunset again and tomorrow morning hopefully a new Sunrise, this ever constant painting which never cease to change it’s colors and hues.

So yes, the days are shorter, colder, the wood stove is alive and so are the wool caps and jackets in the evening, soon maybe all day also. There is more sleep, there is more reading and less cooking outside unless getting on with an early start. The smell of the smoke then lingering on my clothing is of a sweet perfume that takes me back so many years past to my own childhood, those moments when the future maybe was not even designed yet, when the moment was so much easier to live as the past years where few, only filed with the memories of a tender age. There is more time to write, there is more time to think, day after day. This is what I now do.

Be well...
Ara & Spirit

-- Edited by Beemerchef on Wednesday 11th of November 2009 07:31:45 PM