In April 2024 I participated for the ninth time in the annual A-to-Z blogging challenge, writing a post for every letter of the alphabet. My theme this time was the world, the world that is always with us, that we must not keep out and cannot do without.
Well, I got through it, but by the skin of my teeth. As usual, I hadn’t written my posts in advance, so it was a daily scramble, and although each one simmered in my head all day I never seemed to really get down to writing until late at night when there were no other distractions. One would think that now that I have retired it would be easy to keep up, but it seems I was more efficient when working, even in the cruellest month of the Spring semester. Meanwhile, some of my fellow-bloggers had written all their entries in advance and set them to auto-post through the month. Respect!
My theme—The World is Always With Us—is not inherently a heavy one, but what with the weight of all the weapons and wars, I felt burdened by it at times, though I did try to introduce variety over the month, with posts on music, books, food, languages, and occasional flashes of levity (not to mention potholes). Sometimes I felt that my teacherly self was looking for an outlet in retirement, making me lecture my readers rather than simply telling an engaging story (as my blog’s title, Tell Me Another, proposes to do).
First I’ll list the month’s entries with hyperlinks to the posts, and then list and comment briefly on the blogs I visited the most, and the bloggers who visited mine.
The World is Always With Us
A is for Apple
Books: A World Within
A Cosmopolitan Perspective
D is for Diaspora
E is for Empathy
F is for Food
Global Literacy
Human Rights
Invasive? It Depends
J is for Jingoism
K is for Kinship
Languages
Music
Nationalisms
Opium wars, then and now
P is for Potholes
Queequeg
R is for Reading
S is for Spices
T is for Time Zones
Universities
V is for Visibility
W is for Weapons
X is for X Factor
Y is for Yiddish
Zaporizhzhia and Za’atar
I decided at the start to visit and comment on the posts of the bloggers who visited and commented on mine, and by and large that’s what I did, although there was a little time to surf the list on Sundays and read a few more. Half of them were new to me this year, and the other half I follow whenever they participate in the Challenge. Together, they ran the gamut of subject matter, genre, and voice. Thanks to:
Alice in Bloggingland
The Curry Apple Orchard
The English Explorer
Finding Eliza
How Would You Know
Lynnelives
Milepebbles
The Multicolored Diary
Nikki’s Confetti Life
The Witchy Storyteller
I was inspired and humbled by your energy, creativity, and generosity.
A number of personal friends and blogger-friends who weren’t participating in the A-to-Z Challenge also visited, Liked, commented, and shared: Anna, Barbara, Carolyn, Cynthia L, Cynthia H, Hayat, Margaret, Norah, Quirky Chris, Sartaz, Shailja (who shared and highlighted a quote every day), Sharon, and Shoba. Dear Sartaz and Andrew went several steps further, proofreading and pointing out language that needed attention. Love and heartfelt thanks to you all!
Finally, thank you to the organizers of the annual April Blogging from A to Z Challenge for this labor of love. It is so much fun, and always energizes me, despite the inevitable (for me, at least) burning of the midnight oil.