Have you ever questioned something you were doing on a daily basis, wondering if it really was having any benefit for yourself or others? I’ve often gone through this very dilemma when it comes to continuing to maintain this blog, but recently God gave me a strong reason why I should keep it going.
Let me begin by saying I’ve now been maintaining this blog for well over three years. Honestly, it’s really hard to believe that sometimes, especially knowing I’ve published well over 1,300 entries now since its inception. But for the most part, I’ve averaged only a handful of readers on any given day and usually have had little to no feedback from anyone. Initially my goal with this site was to write for myself, as in an online journal about my life experiences. As time went on, I began writing in the hopes to inspire others as well, with the desire that my entries would somehow benefit others. Indeed, the twelfth step in recovery (the name of my site) is ultimately about that very thing, to help others.
Yet, for the amount of effort and stress it occasionally takes to maintain this blog on both my hosting server and with WordPress itself, combined with little to no feedback and a small number of readers, I have regularly questioned why I keep this up, especially knowing it costs me several hundred dollars per year to do so. From time to time, I’ve started to convince myself that I could just write these entries in Microsoft Word and simply save them to my computer for my own viewing and in doing so, it would actually be far less stressful and costly.
But when I wrote and posted an article recently that was titled, The Pilot of Positivity and Joy, which was about an inspiring individual I met who helped me to keep the hope and faith alive in life, my site suddenly exploded with readers. To give a comparison, on most days I probably average about 20 views on my site and if I’m lucky a comment or two. On the day this article posted though, I had around 700 readers, 20 plus re-shares, and dozens of comments not only praising the person I wrote about, but also the article itself.
Sometimes I truly think that God knows precisely when a person needs a strong reminder on their spiritual journey for something, and for me, this was just that, a reminder to keep my blog going.
So I want to thank all the readers who have stood by my side and continued to check out of my articles every now and then. While I hope that over time more might find my site and make a connection to something on their own spiritual journey, I’m at least very grateful for those who have let me know how much my writing has touched their own lives. In the end though, all the credit is truly due to my Higher Power, which is God, thus I give thanks to You God for helping me see how beneficial it is for me to keep this blog going…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson