When I started writing this blog a year and a half ago, I did it because I like to write.  I don’t know that I thought it was going to shake up the world and I didn’t have a specific audience in mind, but I wanted to do it.  Since then, I’ve read lots of other blogs, some fantastic, some not so much, and mine is just what it is, for better or worse.  It’s not very sophisticated and I’m not in it to make money or spread the word.  It just happens.  And it has its own life out there in the world.

Most of the people who read Confetti Thoughts are family and friends.  Sometimes I write something I really like and it is read by one person or four.  Sometimes I write something that touches someone and it gets shared or reposted and maybe hundreds of people read it.  Some of those I understand, some are surprises.  One of the blogs I wrote about my 50th high school reunion is the most read of all.  Wow!

Sometimes I get comments.  Since this posts on my Facebook page as well as the blog site, I get comments from friends.  Sometimes a stranger has a comment.  Yesterday, for no reason, there was an explosion on my blog and 270 people read through it.  I thought there must be a computer error, but two people wrote comments on a blog I wrote last summer.  One determined he is a distant relative, which is interesting and intriguing.

The most amazing thing about this little nothing blog is that it has travelled around the world.  I am able to see where the people who read it live and it makes me shake my head.  Here’s a map, provided by the blog site, of where, but NOT who, my readers are.  Your privacy is intact.

IMG_3786I don’t know if they get translations, which could be very interesting, or if they all speak English, but it makes me smile to see where my little blog travels.  Since I write about my own experiences, with a few observations thrown in, I wonder what they think of this traveling grandmother and her life in America with children and grandchildren.  Which post attracted someone in Sri Lanka or Albania, Croatia or Brazil?  I’ve had readers in Qatar, Oman, Iceland and Egypt.  Someone in 73 countries beside the U.S. has read one of my blogs at least once.

What does it mean?  I’m hoping these strangers from exotic places find something that we have in common or see this American kindly.  I hope they realize that this world is a lot smaller now and we need to see each other as neighbors and not enemies.  We’re all alike in our love for our family and friends, our desire to make the world a better place for the next generation.  If reading some simple thing I write brings someone on the other side of the planet a smile or recognition of a common interest, well, that’s just terrific.

In the meantime, I look at this map and marvel at the magic of communication.  Where, oh where, will this blog travel next?