Blogorhythms? Really HimUpNorth?

That was what I first thought when I read "Listen to your Blogorhythms" by HimUpNorth, an invigorating blogger who I have found through my current indulgence in Twitter.

I thought "How daft!"  "How hippyified!"  and carried on through to "How umm.... sensible. Actually, the man has a point."

Then I read the comments.

Midlife Singlemum PERMALINK

February 15, 2012 7:21 am

When your blogorhythms are low post a photo. When they’re high write loads of posts in draft for when the dry patch hits. Don’t be tempted to post more than once a day – it’s annoying. #Blogorhythmsappendix1

Now, Midlife Singlemum has a point as well.

For example.  I wrote a post about my use of Syndol and the weirdness it caused in my day, on Monday, partly as a response to an email from Rich's ex wife.  It had an apology in it. Then I did Kates Listography on the same day.  How do I know that Rich's ex wife saw the apology?  I don't.  I sent her a long and chatty email with a picture of the AC in response to her terse one, to show there were no hard feelings.  She hasn't replied to that, and that could be because she hasn't seen the apology.

Yesterday I wrote a post detailing what I had done.  I am somewhat of what HimUpNorth refers to as a 'memoir blogger' at times.  I then wrote some of a post, went to sleep at the computer, wrote some drivel on the end and painted the stairway.

Whilst I was doing that, I was thinking about why I blogged, and how that had changed over the years.

When I first started blogging in 2000, on OpenDiary, it was a way of the AC's father and I keeping in touch.  Later, it detailed the pregnancy, the birth of my son in 2003, and his early years.  Then I moved to Xanga for a bit, in an attempt to keep my thoughts to myself.  I was on MySpace for a bit, until people from the RAF base I was on found it and were unkind.  This blog started in 2007, and was about my life, about how we were changing the house, how we were living, so that one day Rich's daughter would have a day to day record of how her father lived and thought.  Then he died, and it became a place to let go of my feelings, a place I didn't have to be "brave" and be "doing so well" and a private place to grieve.  It enabled me to record what I was doing at a time when I was forgetting moment to moment where I was going and what I was doing.  It has documented my return to the real world from the Dark Times.  Now, it is a cheerful record of what is happening in my life.  It's about painting walls and going to work and the occasional rant. It's about having a cold, and changing the way I work and the fact I need to lose weight.  There's no niche, unless you count the really small one of being able to write about my life.

But back to the original point.

Blogorhythms.

I have had times when I could post 3 times a day and even being in the shower makes me think of things I'd like to blog about.  Then, as happened around the end of last year, I didn't blog at all.  I had nothing to write.  It tied in with a period of numbness in my life, one of the things that Rich's death has left me.  They just happen, they last about 3-5 weeks, (although they are getting shorter) and inside them I become very mechanical.  I go through the motions of my life and I work and read and play and bake and cook and do stuff, but it is as though I am doing it from the outside looking in.  No, I haven't been to my doctor.  I think he would tell me that this is all part of the normal grieving cycle, and I am just doing it a bit later than most, because of the delayed grief I suffered.  Apparently. (You can call it what you like Mister, but I'll still not see him again this side of the pearly gates!)

According to Him Up North, this is normal behaviour.  The blogging bit of it anyway.  I should just chill through it, let go of the pressure and relax - I mean, who is this blog for anyway?  Who reads it on a regular basis?  According to Midlife SingleMum, I should be writing lots in the good periods, saving them in draft, and then reworking them in the dry spells and posting them up.

Good plan.  Through blogging I have identified the problem I thought only I had, found a name for it, and a solution.  Who says Social Media has no point!