Ninth anniversary celebrations are marked by pottery to symbolize a simple natural element that is changed with careful work over time into a finished piece that is beautiful or useful, and sometimes both. With gifts and purchases, I have collected an assortment of pottery over the years that I put loosely in those three categories. There’s the plain brown pitcher, a gift from a friend when we lived in France, and the canister that holds flour from Marshall, Texas, both unadorned and useful. My shelf holds blue decorative pottery knick-knacks from various travels, nice to look at, but not of much use. The popcorn bowl, an Arizona gift, and the pitcher with the farm scene makes a stab at combining usefulness and beauty.
As I mark the ninth anniversary of this blog, I see a pottery metaphor for these pieces I have written twice a week, with exceptions that can be numbered on one hand with fingers left over. Like the potter, there have been blogs started that never worked and had to be put into the trash can. Others stalled misshapen and took some drastic refining before I felt they could be published. As for which ones fit the utilitarian, the decorative, or both descriptions, I will leave for my readers to decide. I also understand they may question my judgment and deem some published pieces worthy of the trash can!
I have found it interesting, and sometimes surprising, over this time span to see which ones resonated with people. Some of my writing favorites got little response, while more reaction came from others that I would not have expected. Within the same week, I had one reader say he preferred the book reviews and another who preferred my thoughts on life. During this isolation that has come from the Coronavirus, I have felt a connection with my readers through the blog. – And I’ve had enough encouragement from your responses that I’m ready to start year ten!