Ah, the power of a year. Today my blog is one year old! I love it more than ever and have been surprised at how much it means to me. I’ve been crafting this post for a long time, looking forward to sharing it with all of you!

48 Now 52 people receive an e-mail each weekday with my blog’s content, a fact that astounds me (I am still very pleased that my husband and my mother follow along too). What baffles me even more is that I do not personally know most of you. When I started this blog last year, I didn’t even dream that anyone would be interested in my thoughts, my life, or my photography. I wanted to do this as a record for myself of my growth and to collect pieces of poems or quotations and always have them. I published it (rather than keep it private) because I was working on getting some of my writing published and a blog seemed a prerequisite.

Now look at how things have changed! The blog’s focus at its outset was on motherhood, photography, and writing and it seems to have morphed along the way to be mostly about photography and LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS (hence the new header). Poetic Aperture has helped me to develop my photography business, to learn a bit about HTML and CSS and hosting platforms, and has brought me to new classes and creative pursuits and most important, to new friends. I now spend a large chunk of my days on the computer reading comments and blogs and editing pictures. My mindset is positive and hopeful rather than overwhelmed.

That what I write every weekday resonates with others is an immeasurable bonus for me. Every time someone takes the time to leave a comment, I feel like clicking my heels together in gleeful abandon. That encouragement helps keep me going. Brightening someone’s day is the only reward I need. And all my new friends in blogland… it’s impossible to determine how much they’ve added to my life.

I have gotten addicted to checking my stats each day to see who stopped by to visit, how they got there, and what they clicked on. I even made a goal of reaching 100 subscribers someday (see Life List), which seemed so farfetched then but now actually seems attainable.

I’ve created a Statement of Purpose for Poetic Aperture (see sidebar –>), a list of my favorite (and your favorite) posts, and designed a new banner that reflects the new direction this blog seems to be moving. Finally, I created a page of lovely comments I’ve received that I want to remember when I’m feeling less than confident.

So thank you for coming along on this journey of mine. Please let me know what you think of the not-really-so-new purpose and if there’s anything you’d like to see here in the future. Happy day!