Blogging for Fun and Excitement

Five years ago, my friend, Susan K. Marlow, encouraged me to get into blogging. “It will change your life,” she predicted.

Would you like to add sparkle to your life? Consider blogging. I did, with amazing results.

Little did I know that my wise friend was launching me into a new world, one that allowed me to relive and share the past. To give tips to struggling writers based on what I had learned in decades of writing and teaching. To introduce recently published books. To offer encouragement, humor, and inspiration in tough times. 

“What if no one reads my posts?” I asked.

Susan grinned. “They will.” 

The day after Reece’s Ramblings debuted on October 28, 2016, seventy persons had already visited my first post. “I Am a Blogger” related my growing up in a small, close-knit community with folks who cared for one another. It was only the beginning. By the time Susan and I transferred Reece’s Ramblings to my new website, Colleen’s Creations, a few weeks ago, almost 21,000 persons had visited my original site.

New Venture Brings Blessings

Although Mom and I had moved away in 1970, responses poured in from those who knew me as the long-term school secretary in my hometown of Darrington, Washington. How thrilling to reconnect with cherished friends! And especially with former student office girls in the program I created and supervised. One message brought tears. “You are remembered–and loved.”

My posts continued. So did the excitement. Former college and senior center writing students contacted me. Those who had heard me speak years earlier at conferences visited my site and commented. Strangers wrote, thanking me for tips and tricks, shortcuts I had learned during my long career as a full-time author. Others appreciated the inspiration they derived from the positive, upbeat posts.  

Many More Blogging Benefits

1. Friends who suffer from writers’ block can still give pleasure and information by sharing opinions, beautiful photos, and memories on blogs. 

2. Blogging keeps people updated. There is no way I can write hundreds of letters or emails to let others know how I am and what I am doing. A single blog post solves this problem.

3.  Messages can offer encouragement and hope. I never fail to feel humbled when I receive responses to my posts that say, “This came at a time in my life when I desperately needed to hear exactly what you said.” We may never know how our words will cheer those struggling on the rocky road of life, simply by letting them know they are not alone.

4. Blogging offers the opportunity to share what we have learned. Sometimes sayings handed down from ancestors are helpful, such as . . .

• Good advice: “When a job is first begin, never leave it ’til it’s done. Be the job great or small, do it well or not at all.”
• Humorous: “Everyone to his own taste,” said the old lady as she kissed the cow.
• Challenging: “Never stare at closed doors. Search for open windows.”

This challenge became the basis of Doorways and Windowsills: Sunlight after Storms, an inspirational collection co-authored with Julie Reece-DeMarco. In the midst of COVID, stories of those who overcame adversity offered hope and cheer to those paralyzed by circumstances they wee powerless to change.

Five-star review on July 23, 2020 (Amazon), verified purchase. “This author has a way of lifting my spirits with her words and stories of encouragement. Through simple truth and endearing stories Colleen Reece is my go to author for that boost to keep me moving forward. Like Julie Andrews says in The Sound of Music, ‘When God closes a door He always opens a window.’ Doorways and Windowsills has a way of doing the same for me.”

5. Writers want and need to be read. Blogging builds bridges between writers and readers and helps to establish a corps of faithful followers.

Blogging is a sure-fire way to beat the blues and blahs. Whether grounded by COVID, age, poor health, and missing contact with family and friends, posting messages can help transform self-pity into service to self and others. Give it a try. I did–and wish I’d started decades ago.