20 Lessons from my first year blogging

Last week I had a party celebrating our first birthday at Cat Box Zen.

The green mouse is still glaring at me, but anyhoo….

Cat Box Zen started as the Art of Awakening. No one knew what exactly what we were ‘awakening’ so I ditched the name and ended up with Cat Box Zen which is about the three things that give me joy.

Cats. Zen. Boxes.

In that order too! Well, I love the cats and Zen. The cats love the boxes, so it works!

Since the name change, I added the “wisdom” of Miss Mattie. I say wisdom…loosely. She is still learning.

Mr. Bailey still brings lessons to anyone who will listen, plus we know he still has that attachment issue to his “cushion of contentment.” No judgement here.

As for Trouble Cat…well, he still lurks in the background on the website.

Watching…

Waiting…for the right time to pop on a page and attack a lotus blossom. He doesn’t buy into the Zen. He’s only here for the cats.

I am of course, KT Cat Paws. I love finding spiritual concepts that I can wrap my paws around. I also sprinkle my sarcasm on whatever I can which comes in many colors.

So, as long as I can keep the cats writing and my sarcasm sprinkling, we will definitely stick around.

Having a blog for a year was different then what I expected. I had expectations that I met and those that I didn’t. I learned the value of patience and the need for determination. I also realized, by my surprise that there are many, many blogs out there. Wow.

So, I decided to be real and give you a cat’s eye view of what I learned this past year.

The 20 lessons I learned this past year writing this blog. (Not all are mindful or Zen)

1. I have learned that “wanting to be mindful doesn’t make one mindful.” The same goes with Zen.
2. I should read my blog. Not only for aesthetics or to proof read but to actually read and learn the lessons that I am sharing. (Especially the posts on patience)
3. I had expectations that were REALLY high. I was a Sassy Cat with my head in the cloud. I now realize that wanting to be as popular as Tiny Buddha or Zen Habits isn’t going to happen overnight.
4. Writing about Cats, Zen or boxes doesn’t make one an expert in those things. It makes a blog with a strange focus. Researching and learning never ends.
5. Not everyone will understand or appreciate what I say. Not even the cats.
6. People can be mean and indifferent. I learned not to give them energy. I look forward to them just padding away. (Hopefully with their tail down so I don’t see their butt hole.)
7. Changing my subtitle every 2 weeks doesn’t it make a better blog.
8. Cats will create havoc in my Zen.

   “pffffffft” (Image credit to-Marla Marrs marlabmarrs@gmail.com )

9. As a blogger I want things to happen now. When I focus on the end goal, I lost the Zen. Let’s face it; a Zen site without Zen would just suck. Obviously, my theme this year is still patience.
10. Not every creative though that fluttered through my head should have been a blog post. Only about 10% are worthy, the rest should go in the litter box.
11. When I thought I was done editing, I needed to cat scratch it and keep editing. Oh did I say edit. Apparently, I still miss many typos. :sigh:
12. Just because I write about boxes, doesn’t mean I can stand on top of one. The blog is not about me. How come no one told me that? Sigh again!
13. Be grateful to the all the readers. The ones who consistently read the posts or just stop by on occasion. I need to be grateful to those who never return too, because there is a lesson in non-attachment.
14. Getting upset at the cat for plopping on the computer keyboard while writing a Zen blog is not very Zen like. I have learned the irony of this.
15. Think less and listen more. Really Listen. I recently got a lesson in communication about a post on communication. Don’t laugh, it’s not funny.
16. Google analytics tells me how many people view my website. This is wonderful- Not I tell myself the reason I don’t have more readers is because the cat’s can’t click on the pages. I shall believe this because reality is about as compassionate as the analytics.
    

    Keep laughing.. there’s more.

17. When in doubt-laugh.
18. When you get writers block-laugh.
19. When you get a cat troll on your site who sets the bar on creepy-laugh.
20. When it takes you 4 hours to write a blog post and maybe 10 people read it-laugh.

I learned a lot of lessons this year.

I laughed a lot too.

Peace, Hugs, Purrs and many more laughs to come!

KT Cat Paws