#The100thDay

Relax - the venting, slightly deranged version of me who took over this blog the last three days is gone.  The serene, stoic version of me is back.  For one last time......

Ninety-nine days ago I wrote this post (which I have since renamed) to begin my journey through #The100DayProject.  And now the journey ends.  For once I don't feel as though references to "time flies" are necessarily applicable; these 100 days haven't flown by, nor have they seemed to drag.  As I look across the nearly four months I've been blogging every day I see a steady pace to the days.  So I wonder - did the daily writing help me observe and soak in each day?  As I took time each day to search for topics and think through daily events did I become more aware of life and all it has to offer?

These 100 days have delivered a rich variety of experiences for me.....and again, had I not been forcing myself to write on each of them I surely would be less aware of all I've seen and done since early April.   I've written in the middle of a blizzard and on beautiful spring days and during heat waves.  You've read about fishing on ice, fishing from a canoe, and fishing from a boat.  Spring volleyball season ended, summer volleyball started, and track season came and went.  My family traveled across several states.  I got a phone!  I harvested mushrooms in May, strawberries in June.  I wrote my most-viewed post ever, and punched out quite a few that hardly anyone read.  And in the midst of it all I created a post I feel is the best writing I've ever done.

Some days the writing flowed, some days the words just wouldn't come, and some days I so badly didn't want to write I wished I'd never started the #Project.  Most days, thankfully, the act of sitting to write for this blog was a habit, a natural piece of my day.  When I began I intended to include an obscure new piece of vocabulary in my writing - that plan lasted about twenty days.  Kind of thought about finding a new word to use in this entry....that plan lasted about twenty seconds.

So what's the plan for the future of this blog, these posts?  Not sure.  I've been pondering #Day101 for quite a while.  I won't be posting every single day anymore, but I hate to let the habit of daily writing die.....I want to, need to, maintain this feeling of life moving at a pleasant pace.  I'm not sure what this blog should be - I've never liked the Natural Education title, and like it less all the time since I rarely write about education.  A successful blog is supposed to follow a topic or general area of interest, and I'm all over the place with my topics.  These 100 posts became more like an online journal or diary, and I don't know that I want to continue that trend.  I have non-blog writing I want to do which can keep my writing habit intact, but there aren't enough hours in my day to write here and there and everywhere (I'm a really slow writer).  So the satisfaction of reaching a goal that lasted 100 days is mixed with much conflict about what comes next in this little interweb space of mine.

#The100DayProject has ended.  Writing to this blog every day has also ended, though new posts will continue to appear when time and material are aplenty.  I make no promises on how often that will happen.  A big thank you to those readers who have taken this journey with me....I hope you'll continue to check in from time to time.

Done.