Sunday, July 7, 2013

And then I was thinking


"what is it with ones blog?".  I am not sure I would have asked my daughter Pasha to set up a blog for me had I known what having one, or should I say writing one, turns out to be.

What I wanted to do is get my house in order.

All photos are in albums in chronological order starting with arrival in Canada in 1956 and ending with NOT YET.  Photos of people that my children don't know are burned and others such as of office parties and other events are weeded down to two or three of the same event.  Why burden Pasha and Besito de Luz with 'who is this' questions after I am gone. Most photos have a little story to tell. I typed it up, cut it out and inserted it below the photo. That part of 'house order' is settled.  Shots of our family life spread out on a shelf. 12 volumes long.
Then there is a thick album which I named 'Je me souviens'.  
The first section contains 2 photos of German grandma and grandpa together and many photos of grandma's 4 siblings.
Next section shows Greek grandma alone and Greek grandpa with his 3 boys, one daughter.
Next section is filled with photos taken when mom and dad were courting, 2 of my baptism on a Greek island and a handful of other shots of my brother and I in Greece and some nieces and aunts and uncles.
Next section is my life in Germany, age 6 up to the day my husband, baby Pasha and I left Germany. Lots of '1st time' memories are living here. Some are typed and inserted and some.........................now my thoughts finally return to the why of this post.
  
This blog was meant to contain little life stories that mothers tell their children.  Things that they remember but never had the chance to tell them.

I have since realized that writing a blog also means reading blogs and reading blogs means making comments and making comments means that the writer looks at the blog of the commenter and, being polite, makes a comment on the writer's blog.
I know that you follow me but have a hard time following myself. Just said Prost to myself for the second time.  A wineglass filled with Baileys, the original Irish cream.  Ya, ya, I do have the little liquor glasses that this drink is served in but they are to small to be used for what I call desert.
So, where was I?
Yes, I found R's blog and liked it and thought to myself  "let me see if I like any of the blogs she reads, I can't go wrong" and that's how I got to you L. and to you N. and to you T. and to you RR and to B.  Of course I continue reading H's blog which is kind of a ground stone of my blog reading.
I never mentioned that it sometimes takes me more time to write a two-line comment than it takes you to write a two-page post.  Why, because I chose to read challenging blogers and/or blogers who inform me about subjects that have woken my curiosity.  I now feel that I am playing in a league into which I don't belong. But, I got hooked on you all, on your kindness especially, and don't want to let go.

So much about blogging.  

While writing this I realize that NO, I am not super organized, I AM controlling and the other thing I noticed, actually it rubbed itself in as I was writing, is the fact that I/we do not have a single picture of Mom and Dad together.  I know that they were married. I saw it written on their divorce papers.

PS I wrote this last evening. Just justifying time of drink.

9 comments:

Tom said...

I loved this post, perhaps more than I expected to, but in one particular you are incorrect. If you choose to see the blogs you read as being members of a league, then this is a league in which, not only do you belong, but one in which you play well.

I think I knew from the time I first began to read your comments, that they demanded a lot of you. That you have responded in the way you have speaks volumes for your courage and perseverance.

I enjoy almost all that read in my incoming comment, but I must admit that when I post something new on my site, there are certain people for whom I instinctively look for, and await with interest. I know you do not fish for compliments, and I am not into flattery, but I do look out for what you have to say. I always know that it has cost you. Please do not stop.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Ellena, I can echo what Tom has just said. I'm glad I found you and I'm glad you found me and I'm absolutely sure that if this were a real-life meeting instead of a bloggy one, I'd feel exactly the same. Sometimes we recognise instinctively the people we are tuned to and such encounters are gifts to be cherished. I might not always comment but even if I'm silent, the connection is there.

Rouchswalwe said...

Here's a third echo, dearest Ellena. So you're a Bailey's woman in the evening! I love your posts and comments because I learn new things and you open my world. Thank you from the heart!

I have been trying for ages to reconstruct stories based on the photos I have been able to collect from my family. Most of them don't have anything written on the back, and I have to become a detective with a magnifying glass to use any details available to tell me more. How wonderful that you are adding a story to the photographs.

Roderick Robinson said...

Oh good grief, I am reconsidering our relationship. Sixty years of photographs cover my life and are contained in a single box file. Each time I take a look the order is further disturbed. You may say you aren't well organised but there's no way I could confess to anything other than the reverse.

There's also the matter of Baileys. And the titchy glasses. These are matters of great negative import, E, and I'm not sure I can bear the freight.

Mind you I often let my PJs go a second week without washing. So I'm not pretending I'm without fault. Come to think of it, I'm all fault. You're better off without me.

Ellena said...

Dear Tom! You know that I trust you and with that comes that I believe the unbelievable you say here. Thank you so much for your support.
Dear Nathalie! Our encounter certainly is a gift to be cherished. If you had not written La Vie en Rosé it would not have happened. I enjoyed the story of Suzanne and Père Lafitte - two people with different needs, desires and personalities appearing to be thrown together by chance and helping each other to find happiness.
Dear Rouchswalwelein! My goblet is now filled to the rim with kind words. Thank you.
After the Magyar and I divorced I gave Pasha 2 thick albums of photo-
graphs. She recently told me that she wants stories written. I'm ready.
RR!
How can you say I'm better off without you? You enriched my vocabulary by the word titchy. Danke.

Halle said...

My but I am so late to the party!

For what it is worth, blogging has done more to bring me understanding of me than anything else in the fifty years previous.

It is the feedback and how we respond to it that puts icing on the cake however.

So happy to have discovered you (thanks to a comment of course) and this wonderful circle through you. xx Halle

Ellena said...

Halle!
The party is over - all are happy and back to serious business. I'm glad I overcame the 'next level' hurdle. Are we a circle or a spiral? Widening or tightening?

Halle said...

Oh dear. I was thinking this was the serious business.

You do have me chuckling thinking about the remark about playing out of your league Ellena. I wish you could see how long I spend on a comment, never mind a blog post!

Anyway, also joyful that you went over that hurdle.
Party on.:-)

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Ellena, yes I've read your reply to my comment and I thank you. I thank the blogosphre too for making these conversations possible. I wish we could meet in real life - any chance of that?