Happiness is one year of Sky Dancing Blog

One year ago, I began the process of turning my file cabinet into a functioning blog where people could come to discuss a variety of issues in a positive environment.  I remember how in 2008 the blogosphere turned toxic for Hillary supporters.  It took some searching to find safe havens where the name calling was kept to a minimum, the implied misogyny was fully understood, and the company of like minds was appreciated.  But, as in the nature of life, things change.  Pretty soon, some of the same goosestepping cult of personality type things that chased me off of other blogs left me feeling out of sorts again in blogs that had once been safe havens.  I don’t know about you, but I blog and visit blogs for a variety of reasons. I can guarantee you that refereeing pie fights is not one of them.  I do not like spectating or fighting them either.  I can attend a family reunion or a department meeting for that sort of thing if I thrived on the stress and chaos.

It’s been surprisingly peaceful here at sky dancing as we’ve picked up both readership and other bloggers who are like minded.  We seek information; not diatribes and lectures. We seek the ability to share that information in a constructive way that values strong voices and opinions that don’t also require belittling other people in the process of being heard.

I was absolutely sure-at first–that I had just sent myself to blog Siberia one year ago.  Instead, the community of people that I have come to admire and care about over the past three or so years keep coming here, throwing logs on the warm fireplace, refilling the kettle on the hearth, and bringing cups of warm, heady stuff to share. For that, I am happy, appreciative, and humbled beyond words.  I can point to our Alexa numbers or our Technorati rating–we continue to stay in the top 100 US political blogs— for verification that we are not alone in this and we are doing something right.  But, I’d rather point out that a bad day is usually when one fetus fetishists shows up in pending to tell us we should be more in awe of a clump of cells  and its importance over our lives or there’s about 20 spambot ads captured in the filter.   We dump them all  into trash immediately.  Usually, only the spambots persist.  A good day is when we have a great wonk post on Hillary and we can all come and share in our awe, or a fascinating BB people piece or a barnburning minx diatribe on how our rights are disappearing even as we type our dissent. I can put down my work, pick up a cup of coffee and read the caring voices of our community and think, wow, I’m not the only one!

There are a number of people that really do keep this blog moving.  The admin team is amazing.  I often wonder what we could do if I had some venture capital and a board of directors with Boston Boomer, Minkoff Minx, and Wonk the Vote sitting there daily.  We have some great frontpagers too in various stages of active and process.  Then, there’s every one down page that continues to add links and comments and shared experience. I learn something new every day here.

So, it takes a village to raise a blog and we have one great village.

So, besides wishing us all a happy one day birthday where we’ve gone from crawling to standing to walking, I have to also ask for some help.  First, please promise me that you’ll visit us daily and add your voice because that’s important.  Second, if you can help with the annual bills, please click on the paypal button on the right.  We tried the ad thing and that didn’t work so well, so in order to keep the buttons and whistles–like the current design and format–we need a few bucks!  The little reminder at the top of the dashboard says the custom formatting will be the first to expire at the end of Novemeber.  I believe the domain name will go at about the same time.  So, if you have some change, we’d appreciate it so we can keep on keeping on.

Then, sit back and relax as we begin year number two together!!!