200

This is post #200 for 2024!
It is only the third time in my 18 years of publishing Out of My Hat that I've reached 200 posts in a year.
Because there really is no theme that ties my posts together, my following is limited to family, friends, and those curious enough to wonder what I might be thinking about on any given day. 
I've tried a couple of themed blogs along the way -- one on healthy living, one on cigars (such is my contradictory lifestyle) -- but mostly I just come back to rambling out thoughts here at Out of My Hat. 

I still look for clicks and comments, but not like I did in the early days. Today, I mostly write as a way of organizing thoughts and it seems to be a therapeutic way of grounding my spirit. I don't expect many views, comments, nor shares, and often think I should just write and publish articles without sharing them on my Facebook or BlueSky accounts (I've dropped X). A lot of my regular readers disappeared (see what I did there?) when I moved away from evangelicalism and my Facebook friends list went from nearly 1000 to fewer than 300 (some I dropped, others dropped me), so I know that most readers come from links to social media and only a few are regular followers of the blog itself.

No matter.
It is said that it is better to write for oneself and have no readers than to write for your readers and have no self -- or something like that.

If you came here for a Wednesday Wisdom post, try this:
Do something for yourself.
Write, walk, run, read, paint, craft, whatever. Do it for you and don't worry about what other people think or say. The hippie mantra of the 60s was -- If it feels good, do it! 
Perhaps, as with most things, moderation is the key.

John