JackZen @ 5

Today’s post is the 1,825th post at JackZen. 5 years ago today in 2002, JackZen was launched and has added a daily post to the blog community without missing a day.

My initial intentions were humble. I started my writing career 12 years ago at age 43 in 1995 and I wanted to start a daily writing practice, knowing it would keep sharp my writing knife, which blogging daily certainly has provided. Having “something to say” was never an issue because voice wasn’t my intention. I had plenty of venues for giving voice to my gifts. The intrinsic value of daily observing, research, and writing as practice was the only intention. “Making a difference” in the blog community also wasn’t a factor because as G and I knew back then in the pioneering days, there was no blog community to speak of. Hard to believe just 5 years ago.

I value being a writer, especially after just now releasing my 6th book. It is different for me to blog as a writer, in contrast to writing as a blogger. It is a way of being at the intersection of freedom and responsibility. I’ve been writing professionally, coaching other writers, and enjoying the light of writing mentors for the past dozen years and the universal truth of writing is still the same: the only way to get better at writing is to write.

The state of blogdom today is fascinating. There are still probably many more attempts at blogs than blogs that sustain over time. I suspect it has to do with the sustainability of the intention. Many blogs start with a rant that few can muster the emotional fortitude to sustain beyond a few months of going through the seven stages of grief. Some start in the absence of a significant other’s ear and then die a slow death as a significant other’s ear satisfies any need for self-reflection in solitude.

And so JackZen continues, inspired by the original intentions, as the blogsphere has become a wonderful and thriving ecology of journal-ists. So many thanks to all who have been a part of this community, here and around the world. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to connect in mindshare and heartshare.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 04th, 2007 at 12:01am and is filed under Appreciative living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.