I had intended to post a new blog entry yesterday to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Velvet Sacks, but first the shower curtain fell, rod and all, then the dogs went outside and came back in with thick mud-soup all over their paws, and by the time I got everything cleaned up, straightened out and rehung, I was no longer in a writing mood. Doing laundry seemed like a better idea.
Well, guess what! This morning I realized that today, not yesterday, is the actual anniversary date. Apparently, fate intervened and kept me from posting a stupid, self-congratulatory mistake on the Internet. Way to go, Fate (or Coincidence)!
Some things were different ten years ago, some remain the same. I was working full time when I started the blog in 2006; now I'm retired. I didn't have health insurance; now I'm safe in the arms of Medicare. My knees were just beginning to give me trouble; now I have one new, sturdy knee and another, still unstable one, in line for replacement not too far down the road.
My two beloved dogs from ten years ago, Kadi and Butch, have passed on and made room in my home for two new ones, Levi and Gimpy, who share their days here with my grand-dogs, Lucy and Oliver. Lucy was with us back then, but Oliver came along later, after Winston passed.
The size of our family has both grown and diminished. Three of my five grandchildren have married during this blog's existence, each of those three marriages has produced a baby, and a fourth child is on the way in a few months. In that same time span I've lost aunts, uncles and a few good friends. This very morning my great-niece gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl, and this afternoon a 58-year-old niece by marriage will be laid to rest, too early, near her mother.
Ten years ago I was complaining about President George W. Bush. I was so glad to see the end of his two terms, yet if I match him up against today's crop of GOP candidates, he seems a little more sensible than the rest of them do. Or at least a little less idiotic. That doesn't mean I'd want him back.
Ten years of water under the bridge, and life goes on. So will Velvet Sacks for the foreseeable future. Many thanks to all of you who have joined me in this journey.
Thank you for sharing your life with us for the past 10 years! Of all the blogs I read, yours is the only one that I actually get excited about when I click on it and see that you've got a new post. I love your stories and I love the skill with which you write about them. 10 more years, please!!
ReplyDeleteYour comments always bring me joy, Joy! Thank you!
DeleteI have a Bible verse for you! You help sharpen me.
ReplyDeleteProverbs 27: 17
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Thank you, Sister-Three! And right back atcha! I wasn't familiar with this Bible verse, but it struck me instantly as true.
DeleteCongratulations on ten years writing and persevering. Here's to another ten years and more!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Meryl! My main focus for the next ten years will be to keep on breathing, but I'll try to write a little sump'm-sump'm every now and then, too.
DeleteHappy Blogiversary! Ten years is a long time. You have more stamina for it than I do. I have all but stopped blogging. I don't really want to, I just have run out of things to say. lol
ReplyDeleteThanks for the congratulations, Betty! Truth be told, I'm in the same boat you are. I've pretty much run out of things to say, too, but that doesn't stop me in real life, so why should it stop me here? Sometimes it does, though. I recently went silent for three months, and then there was that time when I skipped almost the entire year of 2009. It wasn't exactly that I didn't have anything to say then; it was that I didn't feel comfortable writing about the things that were on my mind. I love your blog posts and hope you'll be inspired to write more soon. Maybe the upcoming election cycle will do the trick.
DeleteCongrats Velvet!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Holly!
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