Image: Tim Krochak
Hurricanes are usually downgraded to tropical storms by the time they reach Nova Scotia, but in 2003 a category 2 hurricane hit us square on. Hurricane Juan at was peak intensity for 24 hours and Halifax was heavily damaged. (Not Hurricane Katrina kind of damaged, more like Hurricane Sandy damage.)
The morning after, Haligonians crept out of their homes to find trees down, cars smashed, and silence…
An eerie quiet had settled over the city. There was no power, roads were closed and only the Tim Hortons at the hospital was open. People wandered the streets pointing out damage, whispering sympathy and discretely taking pictures.
It was the literal embodiment of the proverb, “There is always calm after a storm.”
I have received more hits in the last two days than I ever have in an entire month. My “likes” and “follows” have skyrocketed and my comments are spilling onto multiple pages.
I’m now a little worried about the calm that will settle on this blog after the Freshly Pressed storm has dissipated.
I’m not being negative.
I’m ecstatic to have been selected and honestly never dreamed it would happen. I’m especially thrilled that it was this post that made the grade. I have received a tidal wave of support and I hope that one or two people may even have read something that has helped them.
I’m just a little confused where things go from here.
I’d really like for some of you stick around. I know it was my depression that got you here but I really am so much more than that. I’m also weird lists of 11 things, sappy nostalgia, and snippets of my family’s lunacy.
I’ve heard of the phenomenon where good blogs have shrivelled and died after the Freshly Pressed dust has settled. That the pressure of follow-up was just too much and bloggers have fled in panic.
While I admit I have no idea what to post next, this is really no different from my usual process. Hopefully one of the boys will crap his pants in a funny way and I’ll write about that.
See you then!
Escaping Elegance 
First, congratulations on making Freshly Pressed! Next….Yes, tidal waves cause dissruption, but when the ebb and flow is over, life resumes and you keep writing as you always did. Enjoy that you touched lives, open portals, started discussions, shone light into the darkness. Doing it once, even if it is just once, means you’ve touched lives all over (I lived with a girlfriend who wasn’t able to articulate to me what her anxiety was like, or how I could help or deal with it, and it was a major reason for the breakup. Maybe if she had known how to articulate, or if I had known what you’ve shared, things would be different). Enjoy it, and realize that there were no predictors that this would happen, and no expectations that it has to happen again. I suspect that you didn’t get into this for awards but to release some inner thoughts. GOOD! Keep doing it.
Thanks for the glad tidings! What you say is true, I don’t write for the accolades… although they are nice. However, the best reward is knowing that I’ve engaged readers. Thanks for taking the time to comment so that I know I have. 🙂
Just let us know when the pants-crapping incident finally happens, and we will all come back. 😉
We’re all waiting with bated breath!
I think you already said it yourself in the last post. Trying to make others happy is tiring and will make you unhappy. Do whatever makes YOU happy and the people that matter to you will respond to that. And don’t forget to take the FP as a compliment to your writing – whatever you write about.
Thanks for the encouragement! And for sticking around.
I could see how pressure would get to people sometimes but just like some I did not follow you just because of you’re article on Freshly Pressed. Though I did find your page because of that I looked and read other things you’ve wrote. Though I will never say I know exactly what you’re going through because I feel that is impossible. I will say that I have gone through dark times before and reading your writing is a nice comparison and entertaining to read. Congrats on getting published on FP and good luck in the future I’ll be back to read new stuff whenever I see it.
Thanks! I’m happy with that… see, it doesn’t take much. 🙂
Hi! I found you because you were Fresh Pressed but then I
looked around and I chose to follow you because I like your writing on other topics as well.
Thanks! That’s very reassuring to my frail ego. 😉
Was it the dead fish? 🙂 I’ve always enjoyed your blog. Fame and unanticipated accolades won’t redirect me. And I think a post about one of the boys crapping his pants in a funny way will be perfect! Carry on, as if nothing happened. You and your staunch followers will be fine.
Oh… good one about the fish!
How nice to think of my followers as staunch… that’s one of those words that quickly loses meaning when you say it too much, Staunch, staunch, staunch…
I’m not going anywhere. I don’t just mean in my life 😉
Oh thank god for you! I was getting so sick of all the positivity! 🙂
Hahah! Seriously though, congrats on getting FP and my best thoughts and wishes for you.
Thanks Ned!
I am glad you were FPed because it made me realize how much we have in common. Just keep doing what you do…or feed the kids some sugar (or caffeine, or whatever they can have that hypes them up) and write about that 🙂
The thing I found after being FPed was the “most views ever” number mocking me every time I checked my stats. No way I was going to get there again, but thanks for the reminder, WP LOL!
Yup – I can already see how that number will be a bane! Thanks for sticking with me past the one post. 🙂