Bloggers are Great People

I'll take this opportunity at the start of the year to encourage us all. We're all making a wonderful difference, whether we know it or not. It's the 21st century and the World Wide Web is a fantastic tool to influence as many as we can so we might as well make use of it. Since I've been blogging, I've read a countless number of uplifting posts from a variety of people spread across the world.

My husband and kids still grin and giggle if we're at extended family gatherings and someone remarks that the word BLOG stands for "Boring Load of Garbage." Yet I know they find my blogging quite interesting. I have to smile myself whenever I hear my dh refer to "friends of ours in America" during conversations. Both he and I agree that the only thing that would top blogging would be to actually travel over & visit all our friends in person. But alas, we don't know when that will ever be. Especially since we'd want to make a concerted effort to cover as much of North America as we possibly can. We'd start on the West Coast and visit Call Me Kate, The Leingangs and Coffee Mom. Then we'd want to catch up with Comfy Denim in the centre. And no way would we miss Juggling Paynes and Vicki on the East Coast. That's just to mention a few. So the whole thing would mean juggling of time, finance and organisation but oh boy, how great it would be!

I'm also thankful for bloggers closer to home. Last week I followed up a comment from a lady named Kylie Willison, who lives quite close to me. It turns out that I met her at a homeschooling conference in Adelaide where I was trying to sell my books. Those of you who have been following my blog for awhile might recall a post I wrote last May about what a write-off I thought it was from a business point of view. I'd managed to sell only one book all day and had a bit of a whine about how it probably cost me financially, when I considered petrol on the way down and table hire once I got there. And some of you commented that we have to do these things and you never know the outcome. Well, Kylie turned out to be one of those special encouragers God holds back for awhile to surprise us with when we're not expecting it. Not only did she end up ordering my Quenarden series through my website after that contact, but she's also encouraging other people to visit my site & blog and read my books. (Turns out she keeps a very interesting blog as a bonus).

I think one of the appealing things about blogging is that you can't help forming well-balanced friendships. We all get a chance to stand on our soapboxes and yabber on about whatever strikes our fancy, yet we are also happy to spend the time reading what others have to say and discussing what's on their minds with them too. Nobody gets to take over and monopolise the conversation. And nobody needs to feel as if they're retiring and not being heard either.

Just to round off the whole experience, we can heat up our kettles and enjoy a nice cup of tea or coffee with each other too.