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Music Man asked me yesterday if I was still writing Retirement 365.

Indignantly, I gave him a long story — and you know how I tell long stories — about the difficulties I’m having going back and forth between two blogs. I will spare you the details, but that’s why I don’t always write faithfully on either blog.

But what is faithful blogging?

I have a friend who wrote faithfully once a week in a travel blog and very few people commented on it. Blogging is a two-way street, and she and a few friends were the only ones driving. She became frustrated and has been trying to find other alternatives to promote her travel services and her book. But I miss her wonderful, in-depth posts and recommendations about places that I’ll visit someday. I can understand her frustration, though. When I put my soul out there for the world to see, I am desperately hoping that I’ll make a connection with someone else who is sharing my emotion.

It’s a trade-off between writing to be read and writing for writing.

I think I used to write because it was a personal outlet for me to escape from the shackles of teaching eighth graders. There was a certain inner triumph in knowing that although my students did not appear to be listening to or applying much that I taught, I was a different person online. In my blogging life I  kind of felt like Sally Field — “you like me, you really like me” — instead of knowing that I was perceived to be the grammar nazi in my classroom. I was writing to save my soul.

But for what and for whom am I writing now?

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When I created Retirement 365, I thought there might be a book in it. I know that’s probably a crazy notion, but it’s a really good thing to say when people are scratching their heads over why someone would retire from teaching. But I’m pretty sure that there’s no book about retirement in me; maybe there’s another book, but I think the retirement card is being played pretty well by others.

When you signed up for Retirement 365, what did you expect to find? What do you want to know? Are you, like me, looking for meaningful ways to structure your retirement? Are you looking for a more mature blogging voice that doesn’t revolve around home-schooling and tantrum-throwing? Are you looking for recipes? My son says that I need to target my audience better if I want my blog to grow. I’d really like to know who you are and why you are visiting my blog… 🙂

 And now for the rest of the quarterbacking about last week …

As I started to write about all of the things I learned and got accomplished last week, it occurred to me that I really should be writing about these as they happen. That was what I thought I’d be doing when I started Retirement 365 — chronicling the first year of my retirement.

So I’m expunging  last week from this post — oh, the glory of the “highlight, copy, paste” commands — and I’m going to start Retirement 365 again.

I hope that you’ll first give me some feedback and then stay with me. I appreciate the time you take to read my self-indulgent reflections.