When I collaborated with fellow bloggy friend Gigi on a recent post regarding my blogging journey, I wasn’t sure how it was going to be received. All I knew for sure was how I felt and that my instincts are usually spot on. As a working blogger, I knew if I was facing some challenges there had to be others in the same situation perhaps looking for answers as well.

When Gigi and I shared our concerns with one another, my mind was at ease because for the first time, I knew I wasn’t alone. Our conversation also reiterated that fact that this topic needed to be put on the table, one I think that many blogging conferences will need to address in the near future. As social media continues to move at a rapid rate, more and more bloggers are finding paid opportunities (all of which have stemmed from their blogs) so this is not an issue that’s going away. Rather, it’s something every blogger will experience at some point in his/her career and like other topics I have faced with an open heart, head on – I am so glad I put this out there and I know Gigi is, too.

My mind is still reeling from the comments and I am still processing many of them.

Your honest, heartfelt words solidified WHY I continue to blog – that my writing to someone, somewhere, somehow still matters.  

I read the words from Emily and was reminded that if a reader has a REAL connection with you, they will continue to come back and support you – that the tribe you worked so hard to build will still be there.

I don’t think it gets any better than that.

My heart is full today as I write this blog.

This blog has changed my life.

I was a WAHM prior to blogging on a quest seeking something “more” never imagining the community I would find and the real sisterhood that would emerge from it – and I have been lucky enough to have found both.

So damn lucky.

Many have said that I am an inspiration, that I have given others the drive to follow their passion, especially to those on their own blogging path but what they don’t realize is that THEY are the very bloggers who deserve a standing ovation because my blog would not be the same without them right here.

So I am here to applaud YOU, the reader who continues to come back time and time again, for being such an important part of my path – one that I know still has much road left to travel, but a journey I know I won’t be traveling alone.