ten years and one day.
Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of my first blog post on Under the Sycamore. Last year I knew it was coming and I had so many ideas of big ways to celebrate. In the blogging world, this is a pretty huge milestone. 10 years. This is my 2,590th post.
2,590 – mind boggling!
Well, yesterday came and went without really any celebrating. When the kids woke up I told them to they should congratulate me and Chris brought home a cookie cake after a late meeting. It was just a normal day in our currently completely chaotic under construction house. A typical Ashley way to mark my own big days.
In many ways, it was the most appropriate and natural way for me to celebrate.
I did spend a lot of time reflecting on the last ten years. I’ve changed as much as this blog has changed. My family has expanded. Our home has expanded. Chris has changed careers twice. Lots of life has happened – a significant amount of it documented here in one way or another.
When I started, blogging was a new thing. It didn’t take long for many bloggers to connect and get to know each other online because there weren’t that many of us. Most of us blogged about random things and didn’t approach our online homes with strategy or business sense. Many of us started because it was a creative outlet with tremendous freedom.
Over the years, there was a shift. Shifts aren’t bad, they are natural. I’m all for change. Blogging for many became more about building a brand or a business. Online classes emerged to teach blogging basics and how to market your online platform to become bigger, better, more financially beneficial. Blogging grew and so did opportunities for bloggers. Speaking engagements. Book offers. Partnerships with brands. So many opportunities to ‘strike while the iron is hot’.
There was a season about 5 years ago, I received an email at least once a month to either speak at an event or to pursue a book deal. I was encouraged by many to strike that iron while it was hot because those opportunities many never come again. I turned them down – knowing they would probably never come again and it would be setting myself up for a decline instead of growth in terms of being online (which is exactly what happened). I was told more than once that I lacked ambition and drive. However it was not lack of ambition, but rather clarity of purpose that led me to turn down opportunities. The truth was my ambition and drive came out areas that most did not see.
For a lot of people blogging is a first step towards something bigger and better and for a lot of people that is so wonderfully true. For many bloggers turning down opportunities that blogging provides would be like choosing okay over best. I’m so thankful many of my friends said, “Yes!” to the opportunities that came their way. However, for some of us – we turn down opportunities that might be the best for someone else, but we know they would not be the best for us. At least in the season we are in.
For me it was choosing to ‘just’ blog and pour my creativity, writing, and time into other things instead of book deals and speaking and all that stuff blogging can be a catalyst for. For you – it might be intentionally choosing to say ‘no’ to things everyone around you thinks you are crazy to turn down. For you it might be choosing to stick with that career that doesn’t bring home a big paycheck, but brings home tremendous fulfillment. Or maybe it is pulling back when others tell you to hustle….or hustling when others tell you to pull back.
In 10 years of blogging, I’ve seen the beauty of watching blogging friends step into a host of things and step away from a host of things. These days I can walk into Target and see my friends’ books on the shelves. I can stroll into Hobby Lobby and gaze their art in several aisles. I can order their products from major retailers and I can see their photos in the speaker lineup at conferences across the nation. I cheer them on as they do their thing, as they live out their callings, as they share their gifts, and as they change lives in the process.
In 10 years of blogging, I can also say when you make decisions that others wouldn’t – you can feel lonely, left out, and misunderstood. BUT you can also feel content, confident, and full of life in the place you are in when you choose to celebrate instead of compare. At least that has been the case for me. The moment I compare and wonder “what if I had said yes to…..” – the joy is sucked right out of me. Celebrating is far more fun than comparing!
I can be content where I am because I have the confidence that by intentionally not choosing what others thought was the best for me, I was choosing the best for me and my family.
And all that freed me up to be a part of incredible things in this space – incredible, mind-blowing things you made possible.
Together we funded adoptions and surgeries for the fatherless. We sponsored kids to give them a future by ending the cycle of poverty and lack of education. We rallied around families facing insurmountable medical needs. We advocated for family preservation, foster care, and basic human rights. We encouraged each other. We grieved together. We celebrated the mundane and shared stories of the extraordinary in the ordinary.
It has been an incredible 10 years!!
These days I am in this space weekly instead of daily. I rarely post about crafts or DIYs. Not as many of you meet me here as there once was, but this little online corner is still such a sweet part of my life.
I’ve begun writing out stories for my kids about this season in my life. Lessons I’ve learned and simple things I want to pass down. It would bring me tremendous joy to share with them stories of this blog. If in the last 10 years there was a post that struck a chord with you or if this random blog impacted your life in a positive way – I would love to hear about it and share it with my kids.
Thank you for coming here for so long. For loving my family from a distance. For cheering me on in so many seasons of life. For making a difference in the lives of vulnerable children across the globe. I’m so incredibly grateful to you for making the last 10 years full of beauty!
