GOOD VIBRATIONS

I'm feeling vibes...good vibes...great vibes...and yet...somewhat terrifying vibes. My blog has received more than its usual amount of comments and hits in the last couple of weeks. Plus, I've received some wonderful messages from people who had been hovering in the background for a while, but finally decided to let me know how much they enjoy the blog or how they can relate to it. One moment I am soaring with elation, and the next I feel a shiver of fear. One moment I'm giggling with glee over having found a like-minded community of friends, and the next I find myself wondering "But, what if..."

What if I get so many readers one day that I can no longer reply personally to every single comment? Or even worse, what if my blog were to cause Wimberley to be so overrun with Lookie-Lous that it no longer even resembled the place we fell in love with? And then I burst out with a derisive snort, and have to tell myself "Geez, get a grip, Beck!" I once mentioned that same concern to my husband - back in the early days, when I was trying to decide whether to call Wimberley by name, or to use a fictitious one. When he finally managed to quit rolling on the floor, and caught his breath enough to speak, he told me "Well dear, if that ever happens, we can always move to Tuscany. I'm sure it will be a lovely place, once all the tourists pack up to move here!" OK, maybe I am being ridiculous, but still...

The blogosphere is such an amazing place. It boggles my mind, the way it can open your world up to a ginormous community of kindred souls. You might have gone slogging through your entire life, thinking you were pretty much alone in the world, and that no one else thought, felt, or cared exactly the way you did, but thanks to your blog, you now realize that isn't so at all. When you first start getting a comment here, and another there, telling you "I know exactly what you mean. I feel the same way too!", well, there are just no words to describe it.

The flip-side of this coin is that it can be a very scary place as well. When I was a brand new blogger, I went to a blogging workshop conducted by mystery author Susan Wittig Albert. I was shocked when she talked about the extreme measures she takes on her blog, to keep people from being able to track her down. Of course, it seemed rather presumptuous to even compare myself to her, considering that at that particular time, my blog had no readers at all! But that can change in a heartbeat. You never know what will cause a blog to shoot from obscurity to fame, seemingly overnight. It could be a contest that you held, something you auctioned off on e-bay, someone famous mentioning you on their blog... You just never know, but one day you wake up, and suddenly you're a household word. I'm certainly not there myself, but I've seen it happen.

Take Eyes of Wonder for example. When I first discovered this blogger, she was just coming back from a year-long hiatus, explaining that she had taken the break because her family had moved and she needed some time while they got established in their new location. It only took one or two postings to get me hooked, and since I was impatient with the long wait between them, I decided to go back in her archives to start at the beginning, and what I found came as quite a shock.

Jewels began her blog strictly as a way to share photos and updates on her kiddos with distant friends and relatives, and it was a private blog, requiring a password. But at some point along the way her husband, realizing what a "jewel" this blog really was, urged her to lift the password and make it public, so that young mamas everywhere might be inspired by her loving example. She finally agreed, but took the precaution of using false names, and never revealing their location.

Nevertheless, within a year she was receiving 2,000 hits per day on her site, and she had hoards of devoted followers leaving comments and sending emails, asking questions, wanting advice, demanding of her time and attention. Most were lovely people, and were very understanding when she offered up apologies for not being able to reply to all the comments. But not all. Even more disturbing was the fact that a family with ten kids dressed in old-timey outfits cannot help but garner attention when they were out and about. Despite her precautions, it was inevitable that eventually, people would occasionally put two and two together, and stop them to say "Hey, aren't you Jewels, from Eyes of Wonder?" So, the true reason she ended up shutting the blog down? She just got scared. I am so thankful she eventually overcame it.