Today’s poem was post #2,100.

When I began, doing a blog was a suggestion from my therapist, who had helped me begin writing again after many years of having let it slip by the wayside. “Putting it out there will make you be more diligent in writing regularly.” she said.

She knew me well. I had let it go for the same reasons a lot of us let go of our creativity as we grow up. Life. Responsibilities. The feeling somehow that our art (whatever that might be) is less important than “real life”.  I was wrong of course, and I was on my way to a mid-life correction and reclaiming of expressing myself, but I was nowhere near “cured” and having readers might help me keep it up.

And so I began. I began first on one platform and ended up here. 2100 posts, and 28,000+ plus different visitors, and between my blogs, I have about 3,000 followers. I have no idea where most of them came from, but I am very grateful.

You might think I am grateful because it’s flattering to have that many people reading my poems and essays. And it is. I admit it. In a time when the average book of poetry rarely hits 1,000 copies. (Only one of my books have hit that hallowed mark yet, and it took years to get there.), somewhere out there about 3,000 of you read. Yeah, it’s validating.

But here’s the real reason I am grateful. So many of you write me, or leave comments, or notes on facebook and tell me when a poem or essay has touched you. Often you tell me why. You share your stories with me.

There was a time, and it was not so many years ago, that I was pretty convinced I was so broken that I would never be able to be of any real help to anyone ever again. But over time, as I began to get your notes and sharings, I realized that was not the case. And I realized you did not have to be completely healed to make a difference to others. In fact, sometimes a broken soul is more powerful than one that believes it is all nice and together. (I really believed I was once, silly me.).

So as anything I have written has touched any of you, you have touched me. And we have shared our brokenness, and our healing – together. For an introvert like me, that’s been a miracle.

And all I can say is “Thank you.” But believe me, my gratitude from as deep in this man’s soul as is humanly possible.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom