When the communities became an official thing on Hive, and one had to choose which community to post in, I was distressed. Many of my posts crossed over several communities in content. Poetry, personal anecdote and experience, gardening, nature, music, humor, addiction, and creative writing. I would spend quite a bit of time pondering which community to post in: is an imaginative story featuring music a post for a music community, the Freewrite community, or the Ink Well? I didn't want to offend anyone. It was very stressful for a while there!
While I wrote in a variety of genres on a variety of topics, one topic I avoided was that of aging. I'm getting old. Who wants to read about arthritis, indigestion, memory impairment and alone time? I guess I had the same notions about getting older that most younguns have - it's going to suck.
I had been very active in the community Power House Creatives, now defunct for reasons I am not privy to. This community accepted any kind of content, and its members gave regular support to my posts. Heaven. When it ended, I was barely a minnow, cast adrift in the sea.
Along came The Silver Bloggers, and I found many of my friends from PHC there. The community also accepted a broad range of topics, and was instantly a great fit for me.
Not only is The Silver Bloggers a great fit for me in terms of allowing many types of post content, it opened up new areas for blogging inspiration - retirement, aging, grandchildren, hobbies, crossword puzzles, retirement communities, and bucket lists, to name a few. We oldie but goodies had a place of our own.
Many older people, especially women, complain that as we age, we fade in the minds and assessment of others. We become, sometimes literally, invisible. Shop keepers ignore us, men no longer cat call as we women walk by (now regarded as a crime, like so many other harmless things), it's harder to get a drink at a bar, and really young people walk by us without a glance.
In Silver Bloggers we are seen again! Our age is celebrated and rewarded! We have the advantage of a lifetime of experiences that have shaped us into more solid beings, with surety and, yes, wisdom. Blogging material galore!
It's been an honor to be here, and my gratitude to all who were involved with getting Silver Bloggers off the ground. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This is my entry to The Silver Blogger Community's monthly Blog of the Month Contest. If you are young at heart, but getting up there in years, this is the community for you!
footer by our dear SilverFish, @mondoshawan