Only 13 people even saw my previous post, no one liked it and no one commented on it. I wondered for a moment if I should continue with it. There are many voices out there speaking helpful, useful things. Some have large followings, and for a reason – it is useful, entertaining, uplifting, inspiring, relaxing, or whatever people are looking for.

I have been writing mostly for my Friend and for myself. If I preach, I preach for my own inspiration more than anyone else’s. When I tell a story, it is so that I can look back and remember. When I teach or instruct, it is because I learned something that is worth hammering into my own consciousness. I write to please Him, the Friend in runningwithaFRIEND.com. And if you don’t know it yet, that is Jesus. Because “from him and through him and to him are all things.”

So, if you find it useful, good for you, and if you don’t, I don’t mind. Scroll away to something else, walk away, and don’t look back.

I realize that all my creative pursuits are like that. I write music and sing it. I record it for myself to listen to. I hope that my Friend is pleased with my meditations about Him. The recordings aren’t good. The voice is not trained. The instruments aren’t perfectly synchronized. It wasn’t perfectly recorded, edited, or mixed. It wasn’t mastered at all! I don’t have the required skill set to do it, nor the money to pay for professional editions. But I love it, as it is a snapshot of my relationship with my Friend.

My poetry is like that too. I pour out my heart in verse, but it is not the type of thing with mass appeal. Who cares about those private thoughts other than my Friend? If you care, thank you and good for you, but it is not meant for you.

Running isn’t, strictly speaking, a creative pursuit, but in some sense it is. Through running I become the type of person that I want to be. More than competition, it is for recreation. And it is an opportunity to relax my mind in nature, test my endurance, gain energy, stay healthy, and learn so much through all the books and podcasts I listen to.

So I think I will continue. Yes, at this stage, while I still can, let me continue with this blog. And since my Friend and I will probably be almost the only people reading this, here is my message to myself: continue doing it! More and more we are bombarded by stuff created by AI. Articles, blogs, music, emails, documentation, books – everything we can think of is getting created by artificial intelligence now. This blog is not. I typed these words and did not allow AI to modify them.

What you do with your creative pursuits is your decision. As for me, I do it for an audience of two: the runner and his Friend.

I inserted these photo’s just for the fun of it. None of them are AI generated.