The blessings of blogging

Last week, Katherine Coble asked the question: Why blog?

There have been a lot of questions raised in various parts of the blogosphere about why one should blog.

Malia jump started the conversation by sharing:

For the most part, with a few exceptions from time to time, what I write here, I write for me. Yes, it's cool to get comments but I try to not freak when a post goes by without anyone commenting on it. Yes, it's impossible to write any of this without an audience in mind but I try not to let that censor me (at least not too much).

She says a lot more, all of it very good. Why do you blog? What do you hope to accomplish? Fame? Fortune? Venting?

Me, personally, I just get tired of yelling at the TV...

I responded with my reasons: I started blogging as a way to pass away the long evening and weekend hours while commuting between Raleigh and Nashville. After viewing 186 Netflix movies to kill the time, blogging seem to be a better use of passing away the three week intervals between home in Nashville and work in NC than TV, working 80 hours at the cube farm or passing out from reading books.

The blogging community in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill met every Wednesday at a local bar, so I had some good influence to prod me along.

Other than that, I love the community of bloggers here in Nashville and will never give that up.

And now, I will add another reason - it's a blessing.

About two years ago, I worked professionally with a gentleman - David - in the Palm operating software space. Later as part of a sales incentive campaign where the company I worked for awarded a "decaffeinated" cruise to the Caribbean to the best of the best software developers, David's company was part of the trip.

David was a guest speaker on the cruise speaking on the compelling subject of the intricacies of (cue the sound of crickets) the Palm handheld operating system. However, he captured the attention of those present, in part by picking up the microphone, stepping in front of the podium and amazing effectiveness with his mastery of PowerPoint. Here's a guy that DID NOT READ his slides word for word! His secret? "If I have 20 slides with three bullet points each and twenty minutes to speak, then I figure I have a minute each to spend on each slide, so I just pick one bullet point and talk about that and then move on to the next slide. People can read faster than I can talk." From that insight, I myself have become a much better PowerPoint presenter.

My family spent some time together with David, his wife Katherine, their family and parents as well. If my memory serves me right, the last time I saw David and Katherine was at a conference in San Jose where they shared that they were moving to France. We prayed together and I shared a blessing over them for nothing but God's best. Of course, as life would have it, busyness sets in, time flies by and I lost touch with them for probably two years. Last week I get an email:

Surprise, Kerry! I didn't know you blogged until I stumbled upon one of your comments. Followed the link over here.

I thought this meme was quite cool, so you can find my link in the chain.

Blessings,
Katherine (of David, Katherine, Jason and Emily on the cruises)

Think about the process of reconnecting via a blog... from France to England to Shaun Groves's blog via a monitor meme at TNChick to reconnecting with some precious people is truly a blessing of blogging.

Reading through Katherine's blog - http://30seconds.blogs.com I'm catching up on their challenges of living in France, the beautiful pictures, the washing of God's Word and application of Scripture in her postings and the move from France to England. What a great way to reconnect! Technology is a wonderful thing - and as Katherine says, "Welcome to the party!"