My Weblog Guru

Today’s Blog Exercise from Lorelle on WordPress is to write about someone who changed your life.  Lorelle herself shared some tidbits about her grandfather.

I thought I’d write about my grandfather.  I wrote an essay about him six years ago when I was taking a writing class called “Writing from the Heart.”  Or I could write a bit more about my father, copying a post from my previous blog.  But that would just be cutting and  pasting previous work, neither of which would flex my blogging muscles very much.

I’ve been following Lorelle on WordPress off and on for many, many years—so far back, she was still living in Israel and was using Rubric, one of the first standard WordPress.com themes (or was it Regulus?); back when WordPress.com didn’t have the option to customize themes and had only a million or so blogs—perhaps even fewer.

She’s one of the WordPress elite.  She writes some of the Support articles and tutorials, she speaks at blogging seminars and conferences, she’s written books on blogging and WordPress.  Along the way she’s helped numerous bloggers, and continues to do so.

I’ve struggled with WordPress themes (design, CSS and all that); with blog topics, and most importantly, discovering my passion.  Lorelle once asked us to write about what we love. In response, I wrote about the difficulty I’ve had finding my passion.  She visited the trackback, read my post, and informed me it was obvious what my passion was.  (It’s web site design and blogging.)  The problem is… Oh wait, I’m not supposed to sabotage myself.  But the truth is, I’m not a designer, and I don’t know very much about WordPress.

Over the years, I’ve come to regard Lorelle as a friend.  I’d say I envy her, but envy connotes resentment, and there’s none of that.  No.  I want to be her, or at least be like her.  Not just for her understanding of design and WordPress, or her enthusiastic writing, her prolific mind, and her ability to inspire and teach others.  Rather, it’s because she’s conscientious, caring, and supportive.  When she writes about her family, her social concerns, her life, I’m captivated.

How has she changed my life?  First of all, I found her Blog Your Passion website, which I plan to read as much of as I can.  And secondly, I think I’m ready to dip my toe into the customization waters.  I’ve been hesitant to try because it costs money.  But it’s a small price to pay not only for the freedom of design, but also for the opportunity to grow and learn.

Thanks, Lorelle.  I know I’m not alone when I say “You’re awesome!”