Somewhere Among Strangers

Some days I’ll write a blog post and it will immediately take off, receiving a ton of views and a fair share of likes. Nice! But then there are the other blog posts that fall flat, barely registering a couple of views and no likes. Hmm…

Of course I love them both, as any parent might love their children, just the same. For ultimately I’m just working things out on my own, sorting out what I learn, see and do on my own terms. But that’s blogging for you: Sorting it all out, hits and misses, one post at a time. Like days stacked one atop the other.

“Still, I ponder
where that other is –
where I landed,
what I thought, what
I did

what small or even maybe
meaningful deeds
I might have accom-
plished
somewhere
among strangers

coming to them
as only a river can”
– Mary Oliver, A River Far Away and Long Ago

Sometimes I’ll look back on a blog post from a year or two ago when someone likes it, drawing my attention back to the person who wrote it. I’ll ponder the words, remember who I was then and what I was doing and thinking. People who were everything who are strangers now. Strangers who have become everything. How I sorted things out then, and how I do now.

I note the changes.

And wonder where this life might meander next.

And who I might become.