I just noticed that I have 1,900 followers for Top of JC’s Mind. Yay!
I suppose that is a small number for a blog of ten years but I am notoriously averse to checking stats, doing publicity, blogging on a schedule, etc. so I’m taking it as a win.
Of course, I realize that some of my followers have read exactly one post, hit the follow button, and never returned – which is fine because there are thousands upon thousands of blogs and very limited time for browsing and reading – but I especially cherish those of you who visit on a regular basis, like posts, write comments, or just send good vibes in my direction.
Life is complicated and I appreciate being (a tiny) part of the blogging community. I also like that I am able to write about whatever is on my mind. Well, at least, some fraction of what is on my mind because my mind is a busy place without an off switch. It helps to get thoughts organized and onto the screen.
And, if you are reading this post and would like to be follower 1,901 or 1,902 or whatever, welcome and thank you!
To celebrate today’s tenth anniversary of Top of JC’s Mind, I’ve finally upgraded to having my own domain, joannecorey.com, so you can read Top of JC’s Mind selected from the menu there or, as always, at topofjcsmind.wordpress.com.
Tomorrow will be the tenth anniversary of Top of JC’s Mind!
To celebrate, I’ve (finally) upgraded my plan and have my own domain address, joannecorey.com. There is a link to Top of JC’s Mind in the main menu and topofjcsmind.wordpress.com will remain active as the blog address indefinitely.
Things are super simple at the moment. I’m using the same Twenty Sixteen theme but without the side bars, widgets, and banners, at least to start. It’s been exciting enough just to get the site up and running this afternoon!
I’ve decided to keep the Author Page in the menu for Top of JC’s Mind, at least for now. Most of the content on joannecorey.com is taken from that page, although divvied up into more reasonable chunks across three pages. Now, though, I can claim to have an author site.
You all can probably guess what my One-Liner Wednesday will be about tomorrow, although I hope to also write a more substantive post about making it through ten years of blogging later in the week.
I am not at all diligent about my blog stats, but WordPress continues to throw some info into my notifications, so I know that I’ve just reached 1500 WordPress followers!
My blog page itself says I have 1,682 followers, which includes followers by email, twitter, and through my Top of JC’s Mind Facebook page.
Either way, yay!
I know that only a few dozen people read my blog on any kind of regular basis and fewer than that comment online, although it still takes me by surprise when I get comments in person from friends, as though I think only cyberfolks read my blog.
Whoever you are, whether you read regularly, occasionally, or just this one post, I’m grateful for your visit and invite you to return whenever you can. This is my 1,561st post, so, whether your interest is poetry, politics, the environment, spirituality, family life, health, or generalized musings, you can probably find something of interest in my archives.
This year, I’m hoping to pay more attention to my “JC’s Confessions” and “How does JC’s Mind Work?” series.
Admittedly, that involves my mind actually working. These last few years have been such a struggle as our family has dealt with the loss of the last three members of the elder generation, B’s mom, known here as Grandma, and my parents, known here – and in real life – as Nana and Paco. Grief still has me feeling scattered, but I’m trying to regain some focus. Maybe, eventually, I’ll even return to having some kind of a predictable rhythm to my days, including writing time. It’s been ages since I’ve had that.
It’s taken since September 2013, but Top of JC’s Mind has just passed the 50,000 view mark! ***** This self-congratulatory one-liner is brought to you in conjunction with Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays. Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2021/09/08/one-liner-wednesday-camera-shy/
I was never much of a stats person with my blog and have become even less so in the last few years as I’ve been needing to spend a lot of brainpower on caregiving, but, every once in a while, I do notice my number of followers which, as I write this, is now 1602!
Thank you to all of you and to anyone who reads any of my posts, whether you choose to follow or not!
I appreciate your patience with my haphazard blogging approach, where I post without having any schedule whatsoever about whatever is at the top of my mind – or was at the top of my mind at some point but took a few days to make it out onto the page. I realize that some of you are only interested in poetry posts or political ones or family ones, so thank you for checking back in to find your favorites.
Next week, I am headed back to North Adams for a few days to work on my poetry collection. Usually, when I go back there, I blog every day, but I’m not putting that pressure on myself this time. Maybe posts will start sloshing around in my head and I’ll post to get them out and have a change of pace from poetry – or maybe not.
So, I should close with instructions on how to follow me, for those who may be new to such things. There are widgets here to follow if you have your own blog or if you want to follow by email. You can also follow the blog’s Facebook page and/or my twitter, both of which always have links appear when I post. I also usually send new blog posts via ello, if anyone has a presence there.
I’ll be saying good-bye to an old decade and beginning a new one.
I guess the bigger question is “is sixty old?”
Well, if not old, I think it’s at least getting there…
I’m not a big “numbers” person. We all get older one day at a time, so I don’t usually fret about my age, which is always one day older than the day before. I admit that I had established sixty as the date by which I hoped to have a book of poetry published, but that isn’t happening. A friend told me she thought I should give myself an additional year on my goal because I have been a chapbook contest finalist, so I guess I’ll go with that. I also have several poet-friends who didn’t publish a book until 60+ so I am in happy and comforting company if I do manage to publish my chapbook or something else in my 60s. Right now, my chapbook is still out in five places and I have three more prospects lined up for submission, so working on it…
Birthdays and anniversaries, especially milestone ones, do remind me to consider how blest I am to have gotten here. I think about my friend Angie who died when she was 54. We used to dream about our respective, then unborn, not-even-dreamt-of-by-our-children grandchildren meeting up at the lake for summer vacations. She does now have grandchildren, whom she never got to hold.
This will probably sound morbid, but, even in my twenties, I made big decisions in my life using the lens of “if I knew I were going to die soon/young, what would I want to have done?” In my case, this has often meant setting aside a personal ambition or accomplishment in favor of taking care of people and doing volunteer work. I’m privileged to have had a choice to make.
It has meant that there have been opportunities that I passed up and that were not able to be retrieved at a later time, especially when it came to my role as a church musician and liturgist. Much too long and complicated a story to stream of conscious-ness.
My hope is that, when I am old, if that grace is to be mine, I will be able to look back with equanimity and not regret.
I joke about not looking at my blog stats very often, but there is one stat that winds up in front of me every time I post, my Top of JC’s Mind Facebook page. Every time I look at my Facebook timeline, my page’s “like” number is in large numbers at the right.
It’s hard to miss.
I was stuck at 99 for a looooong time.
When I finally got to 100, one of my personal Facebook friends admitted that she was tempted to unlike my blog page as a joke!
She didn’t – and I did make it up to 103 for a while, but, now, I am down to 101. Knowing that many people have left Facebook in recent months, I’m not taking it (very) personally, but I am in danger of dropping below 100 again.
Joanne Corey 