Blogging, Limited

I've just decided that this blog will end on its one-year anniversary, which is, I think, August 5th of this year.

It feels right to limit it in this way. Unless one has a particular political axe to grind (and I do not), endless blogging is an exercise in self-advertising and not much more.

I set myself the challenge of writing something in this blog every day, partly to see if, as a beleaguered new mother, I could be disciplined enough to adhere to a daily writing schedule--however flimsy and limited. I've succeeded at that.

I also wanted, as I indicated yesterday, to keep a blog that celebrated not so much the traditional joys and sorrows of motherhood, but the particular joys and sorrows of being an older mother, as well as the more abstract joys and sorrows experienced by this person who writes, and who happens to be a mother. I've only partially succeeded at that. Hoping for better in the next few months.

Finally, I wanted to keep a daily record of events for my son to have when he turns, say, fifteen or sixteen. He'll see a portion of his life that would have remained much more obscure to him if I hadn't bothered to go through this exercise. In that sense, I've succeeded, but I wonder how it will feel to him to know that I've broadcasted his life in this way. I've tried to keep silent about the more intimate details of our life together, but I don't know that I've always succeeded.

From here on out, the focus will be much more on the random walks--whatever ones we manage to take--and less on the like-wow, how-neat-is-this aspects of motherhood; I'm still hoping to write an atypical mommy blog...though I'm not totally disappointed that the like-wow factor often crept into my writing (after all, being wowed by one's progeny is one of the best things life has to offer).