WARNING: BLOGGING IS HAZARDOUS!

There should be a warning explicitly given to anyone who submits their screen name to acquire a blog/journal here at aol journals. Similar to the warnings given on packages of cigarettes: "smoking can be hazardous to your health." For would-be bloggers, it could go something like this "The Journal Editors and longtime users of aol journals have found that blogging can be hazardous to your health. Join at your own risk."

You see, journaling on the web like this is very addictive. It's hard to stop once you get started.

Of course, had I read or heard such a warning, I would have laughed it off, and disregarded it. Not to my health. I can control such things. I can quit any time I want to.

Here's the truth of the matter: it starts out simply enough. You sign on with a journal identity, and create your journal page.  You make it private because you have never opened your paper journals to anyone, so why start with a public web log? It remains private for a long time. It feels very comfortable and familiar.

Eventually, you learn to add other favorite links to the sidebar because you have so many favorites, and if they're there on the sidebar, you can get to them even as you journal, with just a single click. You love doing this. Writing, researching, linking. Keeps you busy, but it feels good, productive. Clever, even.

For a very long time. You peek in on the Journals Main Page once in awhile to see what's going on because you don't know anyone in the journal neighborhood yet.

You wonder about the mysterious listing  "Other Journals" because 1) you don't have any other journals and 2) you don't know anyone else who journals. So that list sits empty.

You continue to make entry after entry, and soon learn how to add pictures to your entries. Every once in awhile you check out Magic Smoke journal for Journal Editor Joe's technical advice, and By The Way journal because he's the Weekend Assignment guy, and you find his assignments interesting.

As the Editor's Picks are revealed each week, you visit them, and their favorite journals. In this way you come to find some pretty interesting people. And while you are cruising about from journal to journal, you realize you can get email alerts so that when your favorite journaler enters a post, you can be alerted of it right away. This allows you to read their post, then leave a comment to let them know you were there.

In the beginning, this is great fun. Especially during long holidays, like Christmas. Your email box begins to fill up by the end of the day, particularly school days when you are not home to open them and read them until you get home. And when you open them, you go to their journals, and the next thing you know, it is 11:00 pm. and all you've done since you got home is read emails, read journals, and leave comments. And write in your own journal.

Now you know what the list "Other Journals" is for: so you add links to all your favorite journals. You let their owners know you have added them.

And now you think it's time to go public with your own journal, so you do. Anyone can read it when you go public, and they leave comments. Very nice comments. Many months pass with this new habit, and you have accummulated a nice collection of favorite journals, all of which you want to read and comment in, and strangely, they do the same for you. That's really nice, to hear from these people.

They become like your neighbors, your friends. They email you and ask about something you wrote about. Or they tell you something more that wasn't revealed in their journal. And you become closer.

You meet artists, musicians, nurses, writers, poets, retired people, teachers, law officers, chefs, mothers, gardeners, foster parents and people on mission doing God's work, people who are in long-term caregiving relationships with a disabled spouse, and people with physical disabilities, people who are very sick, or dealing with great pain. I'd say the majority of them are people of Faith.

Inclusively, they are all people with a great sense of humor, a hopeful attitude about life, a sense of understanding of their place in the world, and a spirit of determination to keep going even when they are experiencing a lowest of low in their life.

It is so easy to get addicted to this because they are as close to you as the keyboard, monitor, and internet connection services can bring you. You don't have to leave your house to meet them, to interact with them, to visit them, or to let them into your own home for a visit. Over time, you do get to know them. During their mirthful highs and their depressive lows, and even during your own highs and lows, these neighbors know when to visit and what to say. They seldom experience a loss of words.

So the downside is ...? The only downside is the time it takes to visit all the journals you have added to your alerts. When you get home from school, there are 43 emails, and 30 of them are AOL Journals New Entry Alerts and AOL Journals Comment Added Alerts. You love reading the comments to your entries. You feel validated. Approved of. You love reading the new journal entries. But you can't stay up til midnight every night, and you have work to do, and you need to keep a focus on it.

This is the negative side of the addiction. You have people in your home (husband and dogs, kids, etc), friends and neighbors who are wondering what has become of you? Where is XXX? She is on the internet and won't be back until she gets back.

So, here is the warning to anyone thinking about blogging:

WARNING: BLOGGING CAN BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH. BLOG AT YOUR OWN RISK. IT IS ADDICTIVE. IT IS UP TO YOU TO RECOGNIZE WHEN YOU SHOULD PUSH AWAY FROM THE DESK/ MONITOR AND KEYBOARD. BUT IF YOU CANNOT DO THIS ON YOUR OWN, JUST ASK YOUR HUSBAND, WIFE, OR FRIEND TO UNPLUG YOUR UNIT, OR LOCK THE DOOR FOR A FEW DAYS, OR GO FAR AWAY INTO THE MOUNTAINS FOR A VACATION.

In the end, it's all about balance. Moderation. Those are real people out there, with real feelings, and real lives. Once you become a part of that, you can't just walk away from them. I guess some folks could, but I can't.I love my journal land friends.

So if you've wondered where I've been, I've been trying to figure out a way to balance it all. A way to keep it and a way to keep it under control. I tried deleting my alerts for a week, but the fact is, I miss them. I miss not hearing your latest news.

I will visit when you post, but if I don't leave a comment every time, please forgive. I will be back again and again. And if I've been gone too long, do what Jackie did: she emailed me and asked me how I was because she missed me. And Natalie, and Cyndi G... you girls rock.