Oh pretty please will you help me?

Oh pretty please will you help me?
22 November 2012

Okay, so I’m virtually on my knees here, and I’m not joking.  Picture it.  Kneeling in front of my computer, typing away.  It’s bloody awkward and hell on knees on the hard tiled floor.

But the reason for my begging is this:  I thought a bit to myself.  Is it not true that I have a whole bunch of people who read my blog daily?  True, it still amazes me, but the stats prove this point.  It is indeed a fact, hard thought I might find wrapping my head around it.  I have lots of positive feedback, encouragement and expressions of appreciation.  And for those I am deeply grateful.  They motivate me, inspire me and keep me going.  Funny how even the smallest word of support or encouragement fills me with enthusiasm and oomph.  I suspect words of kindness, heartfelt and sincerely expressed often have this outcome.  And I am so very, very grateful for what all of you give back to me.

However, I would very badly like to grow my blog.  I would like to increase my daily views and “fan base” if that is the correct word?  I am not being big headed here and getting ahead of myself.  It is not as if I think I’m sooooo good and worthy of this.  This is merely a humble wish of hope.  A goal I have set myself.  From what I can make out from the feedback I’m getting, is that the blog brightens people’s day.  That they look forward to it daily.  Indeed many people start their day, by reading it.  It gives them something to think about and quite often it makes them laugh.  It is perhaps a brief reprieve from their own lives and a little escape from reality.  For many South Africans around the world, who I think make up the bulk of my foreign views, it is perhaps a little taste of home too.  Perhaps they identify with some of the things I write about.

And maybe therein lies the “magic” of “From the birds and the bees, to family trees”.  I write with honesty and humour about very average, very ordinary things.  Not the big stuff and the highlights of life.  More the mundane – things that happen to all of us.  You know, the small print, not the bold headlines.  Stuff we can all relate to.  Stuff that’s happened to most of us.  I don’t think my viewpoints are particularly unique or original.  Maybe I’m a bit quirky and have a different take on things.  Maybe not so much.  I am too close to it to be objective and be able to tell.  A huge part of me still marvels at the fact that others read the blog.  It is a rather surreal feeling.  I think there is a partly voyeuristic feel to it too.  An intimate and in detail little daily slice of someone else’s life – in this case mine.  And perhaps by reading a blog, others can look at the daily entries and either think “thank heavens, not for me”, or “glad that’s not me”, or alternatively “what fun!”.

For me, when I’m writing it is as if I’m having a conversation with all of you.  As if I know each and every person, well personally.  It’s also a bit like talking out loud to the voices in my head.  We have whole conversations together.  You have come to know me better.  And through your feedback, I have come to know you better.  I’m but a simple girl with simple tastes.  I love my family, friends, laughing, living, life and love.  Not necessarily in that order.  Perhaps I am quite honest.  Voicing feelings that others may not give utterance too.  Maybe something that they realise that they perhaps feel the same about, yet have never voiced out loud.

But enough about me and why I do it.  And back to the begging on the knee thing.  I urge you, nay beg you, to please spread the word for me.  There is no financial gain in this.  Maybe one day in the hopefully not too distant future there will be.  Still that is not why I do this.  I would like more to read.  If you know anyone who you think might enjoy it, tell them too.  But, and this is a big but, only if you think the blog is deserving and worthy of it.  If you know anyone in the magazine or publishing world send it to them too.  Who knows.  Maybe someone, somewhere will like what they see, read and feel after coming on a blog journey with me.  We are not bound by borderlines – so go forth.  It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are.

You can help me.