This post will be a little different from most. This is dedicated to my followers.

I want to make sure that I say thank you to everyone in the WordPress community who has been following me since I started my blog a little over a year ago. It’s very difficult for me to express in words how much I appreciate the support and the encouragement from all of you. Please just know that I am very thankful and appreciative for all of your support.

If you have just a moment, I’d like to tell you why I started this blog. For those of you who have read my “About” page you may have a pretty good idea about the basics of why decided to do this. However, one thing I did not address was the when. Why did I decide to start my blog at the time that I did?

This last year has been a very difficult one in my life as I became very depressed as soon as I saw who the Republican Party of the United States had nominated for their presidential candidate. I’m sure many of you who are from outside the US, and some of you who live here in the US, may share the horror at what has happened in the United States of America. Frankly I went into a deep depression, and there was a time shortly after the election that I seriously contemplated ending my life. Facing the prospect of having my country turn into a fascist dictatorship was simply more than I thought I could bear. And unfortunately many of the imagined horrors of this administration have come to fruition. This is very hard for me to say, and is extremely hard for me to admit these very personal feelings.

So I started the blog last fall as a way to cope with my feelings and depression, and as a way to express the little bit of hope that I still had inside me through my writing and my photography. The writing was really therapeutic. It allowed me to process my emotions in a way that brought me comfort and calmness The WordPress community is very responsible for me being here today. The immediate positive feedback I got was so encouraging and uplifting. And as I gained a few followers and then started following their writings and art, I quickly realized that this WordPress community is a special place. We are a community of thinkers. And as long as there are thinkers out there, humanity has hope. And I quickly realized that I was not alone; that there were many others who were feeling what I was feeling.

Every one of us has some special talents, and every post from each of us comes from our passions. Of course those passions vary tremendously among the community. Some of you completely stay away from politics and entertain us through your travel blogs and your wonderful photography and stories. Some of you are extremely passionate about your feelings regarding what is happening here in the United States. Some of you are artists using WordPress as a place to show off your work and get feedback. Actually we are all artists.

What I have found most uplifting and inspirational about this WordPress community is that each and every post is made from the heart, and those who post statements and arguments defending certain positions always do so with well thought out positions and well-crafted documentation for those positions. This encourages me so much because perhaps we can change things for the better and make this world a nicer place for all of us. Each one of us recognizes what it takes to put ourselves out there in the public domain and bare our souls through our words and/or our artworks. The positive feedback and support I received from all of you over the last year has really helped to get me out of that deep depression and let me realize that there’s a world out there that I can still enjoy.

So from the bottom of my heart I just want to say thank you to each and every one of you for all of your kind words and encouragement and support over this last difficult year. I have to say that every time I get on the WordPress Reader I come away with a smile on my face and a warm and positive feeling in my heart. Each of you have made that happen; so once again thank you so much to every one of you. Happy holidays!