It’s anniversary time! You’re welcome to join me in a delightful pot of tea & a scrumptious treat…
Today we have a delicious gf Hazelnut Torte with layers of strawberry cream & a pot of French Earl Grey tea, as it’s our anniversary week!
Yes, Tea with Jennifer is one year old! This website was launched 12 months ago…
I have two large slices of cake & poured a cup of tea for us, let’s go & sit in the shade of our beautiful Jacaranda tree.
It’s summer here & it’s a relaxing place to sit as we reflect upon this past year together.
Blogging
Blogging has become such a wonderful blessing in my life, especially in the precious new friendships made here, nurtured in our time of tea & reflection together, thank you dear friends!
Blogging has also highlighted an important truth to me.
No matter what age, stage or season of life we are in, each of us are called to fulfill a purpose & we need to be truly authentic within that purpose!
Let me explain the above statement a little more clearly.
When I started this website my aim was to humbly fulfill a call, to share my professional & personal life experience with others who are facing the challenges that life has a habit of confronting us with.
Many of these challenges, I have already traversed, survived & thrived through.
Because of an amazing relationship I chose many years ago, shared in My story…
Naivety
Although, rather naively, I came into the blogging world believing a blogger wrote an article & then it went viral because I’d heard so many things on the Internet going viral!
As I was researching to set up my website I quickly learnt that the vast majority of websites do not go viral after publishing a first, second, third or subsequent reflection!
A blogger has to work extremely hard to promote their tiny space in this blogsphere.
This is done by joining blog communities in blog link ups, blog hops, blog parties, using social media, reading, reading & commenting.
And being really inventive with categories, tags & how your website is set for servers & search engines!
Therefore, I set about putting in the hard yards.
As I don’t use social media I joined many family friendly blog link ups each week & went about adjusting my Website settings.
So many new friends started visiting & continue to faithfully return as my regular tea & reflection guests, from many different nations & cultures worldwide each week.
Which is such a privilege & delight…
However putting the hard yards in had started extracting its toll.
As 90% of my cyber time was being spent on promotion with only 10% on writing, hence my quiet time for our all important tea & reflection began to suffer.
I was also becoming harried & stressed.
Stress is counterproductive for me, as stress is one of the triggers for Fibromyalgia to go into a flare, which is what happened!
As seen in my reflection When we have nothing left to give…
And I had started getting distracted by WordPress statistical data…ahhhh…which is not me at all!
I do realize they have their place in monitoring your Web site’s impact & place in this blogsphere…
But I am much more interested in you, my dear friend & how you are traveling each week in the midst of life’s challenges, not in blog referral statistics!
What was happening to my authenticity, purpose & call?
A great imbalance had occurred!
I took a long hard look in the blogging mirror at the behavioral patterns this promotional tour had begun to develop…Hmmm…It had become a detour!
We often get detoured in life, when we start focusing on peripheral things that seem so interesting, enticing or even important at the time.
But end up completely distracting us from our true purpose…
So as I do when problematic issues appear or develop in life.
I pause…
Pour myself a cup of tea, sit quietly, reflect, journal & have a good old chat with God…
Then I go into action!
Authentic = original
I started by looking at my original call & purpose for this website…to humbly share my professional & personal life experience to offer hope to others going through similar struggles!
So, I now keep purposefully focused, managing my time at community blogging events much more wisely, which has taken the stress away.
And I view statistics as an interesting tidbit of info but not a focus!
“Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began & finished this race we’re in.
Study how He did it.
Because He never lost sight of where He was headed – that exhilarating finish in & with God…”
Hebrews 12:2 Refer 2
Taking the above action has restored His peace & harmony within my soul, returning me to my true authentic purpose & call.
So dear friend, let me ask you the following question in this brand new season;
Have you become side tracked, traveling on a detour that has you feeling harassed & stressed, focusing on things that you know have started compromising your true authenticity & purpose?
Something to ponder, don’t you think?
Until next time,
Jennifer
You’re most welcome to join me in The Reading Nook
Or in Prayer
© 2019 Jennifer M. Ross, teawithjennifer.blog All Rights Reserved. Photo by Pexels.com
Tea With Jennifer 
Congratulations! You made it. Oh how I can relate to the distractions. I am a Pastors wife, grandmother and full time employee. Recently life happened and I chose to step back from my blog and breathe. Self- care is vital.
Absolutely, I agree! Sadly as women we learn this far later then we should in trying to be God’s heroines instead of His daughters 😉
Glad you enjoyed our time together.
Wow – this is exactly what I needed to read this morning. This morning as I sat down to the computer and thought “I HAVE to work on this blog” as in promoting it, etc etc….which is not at all how I began blogging. Thanks for helping me see some of the distractions and where I have veered from my original goal/idea. Such a helpful post for me today!! Much thanks –
You’re very welcome Jennifer…so glad you enjoyed our time together.
Promotion becomes a distraction from our real calling & purpose…doesn’t it… 😉
Hey Jen, you asked a really great question. And my answer is yes! I’ve gotten side tracked and lost in this blogging journey a time or two, or three! Ugh! 🙁 Its so easy to get off course with the social media promotion, link ups, statistics, etc. But I love how your post helps us reevaluate and get back in track. I really do enjoy my time here on your blog. I’ll be your new bud. Thanks for the tea, my friend!
Hi my new bud Tiffany!
Yes, there are so many interesting distractions in the blogsphere…aren’t there!
However, keeping our main purpose in the forefront of our minds, really does keep us on track 😉
I can’t believe how closely threaded our posts really are..you were right! I find tremendous encouragement & confirmation in this and in what you’ve written! It’s so great to have found my way back again to the calling I felt with my own blog in the first place, and it’s so wonderful to see that I am in such great company! Travel on, my companion, and keep the focus just like you already are!
Glad you enjoyed our time together…Yes definitely keeping our focus on the true purpose in Him rather than a side road of statistics is important & enjoyable! A lesson well learned 😉
Wishing you a belated happy anniversary Jennifer. It is indeed interesting how we can get sidetracked and find a need to recalibrate every so often. I am so thankful I decided to take a month off as it allowed me to spend precious time with a dear relative who passed away peacefully yesterday. It puts everything into perspective.
Oh Brigid sending gentle hugs to you in your sad loss. It does put everything into perspective, most definitely.
Thank you.
Jennifer, I so identify with this post. Congratulations on one year of blogging.
Thank you Mary! 😀
Your blog is always such a peaceful, relaxing place to be, so enjoyable!
It’s an interesting journey on here. I wonder how many people end up where they thought they’d be. I think things come into your life when you need them and then they fade away when you don’t. End results not as important as appreciating the journey along the way.
My main purpose here has been to spread awareness in hopes that anyone in need of a connection with chronic illness knows they aren’t alone. My way of reaching out. I feel the same today as I did the day I started. I’ve overshared ALL over the place but in doing so I’ve practiced being a little more true to myself. And a few people along the way have thanked me for doing just what I aimed to do, so it’s been good this far.
I want to add that I’m so glad our paths crossed here. Wishing you a lovely New Year, Jennifer! 🌻
Awww, thank you Mishka! It has been a pleasure getting to know you in this blogsphere. 😀
I’m glad it is a peaceful place to linger that is something I wanted to create for everyone who visits here…we need that in this overly busy world & especially when going through the hard times in life.
I always smile when you write that you think you over share, I believe it’s who you are & that your personality is shining brightly through 😉 which makes getting to know you all the more delightful.
You are accomplishing what you set out to do 😉