Yesterday my friend and fellow blogger, Carolyn Thomas of Heart Sisters was kind enough to send me this note:

Hello Dr. A – just a head’s up in case you haven’t found it yet: KevinMD picked up my piece called “Five Rules For Living Well With a Chronic Illness”, which I re-ran from your original blog post on May 5th, with links and credit – of course!

It made me think of some of the cool things I love about blogging.

1) Sharing my knowledge and experience. What can I say, I love helping people and this blog allows me do that beyond the bricks and mortar of my office. When people let me know that something they found here made even a difference to them I feel touched, honored and, yes, happy!

2) Providing a forum for like minded people. That is the Holy Grail of blogging, to provide a community. The statistics show that people from around the world visit this blog daily so I do not doubt there is a community out there (Hi, guys!).  I admit I would love to hear from people more, but I figure you all may be shy and that’s OK.

Bloggers love it when their community is evident by the conversation that takes place among commenters. This has happened a few times here and on PsychCentral, where I am a regular contributor. When it does you can bet I am doing my happy Snoopy dance!

3) When the places and people reached grown beyond the EWN blog. Writing articles for a blog is sometimes like sending messages in a bottle throwing them out to sea. It’s so much fun to see them pop up here and there in the most unexpected moments in yet to be discovered places! I’ve had the pleasure of having articles long forgotten picked up by the big and small on the Internet.

4) Bloggers, by the huge majority, are generous, honorable people who give credit where credit is due. I know there are a few bottom dwellers out there who will plagiarize without a thought or leave nasty, sick comments, but they are outliers. The blogging community is chock full of people who support each other, cheer each other on and ethically provide links and credit to each others’ work.

5) Content is provided just by opening up your eyes! People ask, “How do you blog day after day? Don’t you get writer’s block? What could you possibly find to write about?” Content is never the problem. Focus sometimes is. Writer’s block only occurs for me when there are so many things to write about I freeze with indecision. And Time. Finding the time to write, and not just any time, but the right kind of time to write well, that’s my biggest challenge. Finding stuff to write about? Never!

Today for instance. I didn’t intend to post anything today, but the happiness of seeing Carolyn’s little note and seeing my article linked to a big deal blog that is read by thousands of people, well, I had to share!

And that makes me happy!  🙂