The Gift of Looking Back


When I first began blogging in 2010, I was stepping into a new and unfamiliar space. One shaped by curiosity, uncertainty, and hope. Clanmother began with a single sentence.

Hello World. Welcome to Clanmother – a backward look forward.

Sixteen years later, those words still hold meaning. But everything around them, and within me, has changed.

I still remember the first time I pressed Publish. I held my breath. My heart pounded. And I thought: This is the beginning of something extraordinary.

Pilgrimage to Canterbury 2010

It wasn’t just about sharing words. It was about stepping into a larger conversation, opening myself to connection, and claiming a voice I wasn’t entirely sure I had yet. That feeling has never quite left me.

Change is the one constant we can count on. It arrives quietly or suddenly, reshaping our days, our tools, our perspectives. In the early days of blogging, the world was different. Platforms were simpler. Posts were often like letters sent into the void, handwritten with keystrokes, shared without expectations of reach or return. There was space for reflection, for the slow unfolding of thought.

Over time, technology accelerated. The digital world became noisier, faster, more fragmented. Attention spans shortened, algorithms sharpened, and the quiet intimacy of early blogging gave way to the blare of instant reaction.

Walking on ancient stones in Pompeii 2024

Now, in 2026, we find ourselves at another threshold. Artificial intelligence, automation, and voice-assisted technologies are reshaping how we speak, write, and connect. Our words move faster, our images flicker and fade in seconds. But I believe we still crave something slower, more rooted. Spaces where thought can breathe. Clanmother will remain one of those places.

This isn’t about resisting the future, but about shaping it with care. I’ll continue sharing reflections, conversations, and moments from everyday life, grounded in what matters most. Joy, presence, memory, and the wisdom of lived experience.

Clanmother, has grown with me, accompanied me, evolved with my voice. Looking back on those early posts, I see not just what I wrote, but who I was. Each entry is a trace of becoming, a record of how I met the world in that moment.

To revisit these posts now is not an act of nostalgia, but one of renewal. I believe in the power of returning to old words, to former selves, to paths once taken. It helps us understand how far we’ve come. It gives us the grounding to move forward with greater clarity and gratitude.

In the weeks to come, I’ll be revisiting some of my blog posts from the past and bringing them forward as a way to crystallize moments. To pause time, hold it up to the light, and see what wisdom and wonder still lives inside. This is not just a retrospective, It’s a conversation across time, a meeting of selves.

Because in the end, as Søren Kierkegaard reminds us:
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

And so, with humility and anticipation, I look back in order to keep moving forward.

Rebecca



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