A Pat on the Back

There’s a wonderful thrill when I’m notified that someone is following my blog – thank you Sid Dunnebacke and The Blissful Adventurer. I am attention-shy and prefer to be in the background most of the time, and yet I find myself craving affirmation for who I am and what I do. Perhaps it’s my upbringing, both cultural and religious, which instilled humility – it’s only in recent years that I could start accepting compliments graciously rather than deflecting them, and it’s taken me a long time to admit to myself that I’m fairly good at what I do, which is why people choose to continue working with me. 

For whatever reason, I believe the journey to self-realization is filled with milestones like these, moments where you feel “y’know, I think I finally get what people mean when they say that.” Sometimes the realization isn’t a pleasant one but once it’s right there in front of me, I can recognize moments of weakness and tell myself ‘don’t go there’ or ‘stop being such a wimp and pull yourself together’ or ‘millions of people go through this, and worse, all over the world so stop making such a big deal of it!’

Reading about experiences others have had – whether they’re friends or strangers, from forwarded emails  or blogs – have made a big difference for me too. It’s comforting to know there are kindred spirits out there who share the same views or have the same thoughts (at least some of the time!). In fact it’s partly why I started to blog after years of ‘considering’ it, and I’ve not been disappointed by the experience of writing it, nor by the comments and replies posted by people who have read them.

So thank you to everyone who’s read and/or followed my blog, posted comments or replied to them. In the words of author Matthew Reilly, “never underestimate the power of your encouragement.”