Tracking my blog

One of the first things I did when I started this blog was to install a tracking code. Through google analytics I can find out how many people visit my blog etc. (Actually I can find out quite a bit of information - like where people come from and how long they stay and what site refers them and if they found my blog through a search engine, which words they typed - sort of creepy, eh?)

Up until May, the number of hist on my blog has been steadily increasing. I liked that. It made me feel like this blog thing was really a good idea. More and more people were checking it out - maybe this blog was actually serving a purpose. I also liked to guess who was visiting my blog from Ireland and who in Zurich or India is reading my blog. I have an idea - but as I have a few friends in Dublin I don't know which one of them is the one reading my blog - or if it's all of them. It made me feel like my friends back in the US (which is by far the country with the most hits - understandably) had not forgotten about me. Who is reading my blog in Florida?

In May, I noticed that my numbers were going down. I started to wonder if people had forgotten about me. I was starting to feel like there was no point for me to post anymore because fewer people are reading this blog. I was also much busier at work so I had less time to look at the map and see exactly where the people in China had come from. I had less time for my blog. I was also feeling generally stressed and did not feel like I had positive things to share. All of this led to me posting less. If you notice, I posted a total of 9 blog updates in May, compared with 18 in April. The point of this is that, in actuality it was not my friends that changed their reading habits - it was me that had changed. I couldn't see that though.

I think this is a good life lesson. When we think other people have a problem we should first look at ourselves and see how we relate to the issue. I thought my friends were just forgetting about me - in reality I was forgetting to tell them about me. The total number of hits did not drop as dramatically as my posts. That actually means that my friends are more loyal than I am. I need to remember this so that next time I think someone else has a problem I can stop and see if I'm really the one with the problem.

There is a prayer by St. Francis that goes like this :

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console,

To be understood as to understand,

To be loved as to love;

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

It is in dying that we are born to eternal life!

I hope that I can live this prayer -after all prayer is how we live our lives.