Day 31 – what has October’s blog challenge taught me?

It’s 31st October and the last day of the October Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m delighted that I have managed to post every single day during the month and I thought today’s post would be a good opportunity to see what has happened for me during this challenge.

On 4th October it was my dog Alfie’s birthday and I posted about him, adding photos which is unusual for me. It was lovely to have several people telling me how gorgeous he is (well, he is!) and this inspired me to post the next day about what we can learn from animals, who are so good at being in their own skin, and how we could perhaps be better at “being human”. There was lots of reaction to this post and some of the comments were really interesting.

A bit later, I posted about the Chopra Centre’s 21 Day Meditation Challenge which is due to start on 5th November and several people said they would join me on the challenge. This is fabulous; the Summer challenge was a great experience and I just think the more people that take part the better for all of us.

I posted a bit more about play and playfulness, having been inspired by Kama J Franking and Tracy Shave. Again, there were some really valuable comments. I am becoming more and more interested in this subject and can see that I will be writing a lot more about it in the future.

I’m really happy that a couple of my posts got people talking and thinking a bit more about feminism, and that I was able to share positive things about being 50 and other mid-lifers made some inspiring comments about their experience.

I also shared a bit more about my big project on worry, and gained some useful tips to add to my growing toolkit.

Finally, and quite possibly most significantly, I shared my idea of creating a list of things we love, and had the wonderful experience of people telling me that they had tried it too and it had made them feel happier, and smile. What a fantastic privilege to be able to write something that just popped into my head, and then get feedback from others that they had benefitted from what I wrote! I’m really interested in this particular idea and will be forging ahead with my own list doubtless revisiting it in my blog!

Those are just the highlights; in between I blogged about almost everything, including the law, politics, housework, self-care, creativity and commitment. I now have a total of 107 posts on my blog, which at an average of 5,000 words each, is almost the size of a small book! I really do think that now is the time to turn some of this prolificity (it’s a real word – I looked it up!) into a proper book and share my ideas even more widely. I would like to thank each and every one of the people who has read any of my stuff, and especially those who have commented, both on the blog itself and elsewhere in social media, for their time, attention and contribution. I really appreciate it.

And of course I must thank everyone else who took part in the challenge and whose posts I have read. As before, there has never been enough time to read all that I wanted to, but I have been inspired, moved and educated and I have made new friends. So, for this opportunity, it’s also really important for me to thank Michele and Michelle for organising the challenge and supporting and encouraging us. I knew this month would be a learning and changing experience, just like July was but in different ways, and it has certainly lived up to my expectations. Thank you everyone!