I spend time every week searching for blogs that I would like to follow. I like blogs where people post at least once a week. I have a wide variety of interests so I look for topics on birds, wildlife, gardening, life experience, art, books, music and posts that provoke thought on variety of topics. I find something that looks interesting and then follow it on my favorites for a while. If I think this would be an interesting blog then I follow it.
My searches are some what scattered. Once I looked at some one's picture beside me and it turned out to be an awesome blog. Jenn ably covers a wide variety of topics on Cottage Country Reflections. She is an expert on grief as she spent time looking after her parents and so had first hand knowledge in the care and loss of loved ones. Jenn is a passionate advocate for fairness , justice and equality so when she gets on her podium on these topics she's got my undivided attention. So I found this blog by blind luck.
Most of the time I comb through lists of followers or blogs people follow. I find many excellent well written blogs but find some of them to be limited to a specific area or topic that is not highly interesting to me. I also follow a number of political bloggers but I haven't put them on my blog list but keep them on my favorites list.
Now what causes me some concern and curiosity is when some good bloggers suddenly disappear. There's a last post and no more. There's no warning that the blog is about to cease. I had a second blog one time and I decided to give it up. I had started the blog when I didn't really understand how blogger worked so wanted to try something else. When I decided to call it quits I wrote a last post and told readers, if there were any, that this was the last post.
Several blogs which have ceased , explained and gave notice that the blog would end. Peter Stewart, from Out of My Multiple Minds was up front with his readers and fully informed us that he was dying. Peter blogged until two days before his death and his daughter posted after his death. It was a most powerful blog and gave me a great deal to think about. Some bloggers have come to the point where they wish to slow down. Teacher Man told us he would see us later. From time to time he still posts.
The people who just plain disappear leave a bit of a hole in my blog world . They've had excellent blogs and then disappear with out warning. I keep hoping that some day they will come back. As time goes on I begin to fear the worst and that the blogger has passed on. I understand that in the real world someone will have much more important things to do at the end of their life than to write a blog. Some people , I'm sure, become incapacitated and are not able to blog and they may not have friends who know about their blog. So these bloggers have just disappeared: Margaret's Ramblings, 70 Plus and Still Kicking, Truthteller and Wren's Nature Note book. I enjoyed reading your posts and miss you.
Bloggers often develop great friendships. The online world can become very meaningful and a rich source of support in daily life. I appreciate the bloggers I follow and value their thoughts and comments made through their blogs.
