One of the most delightful, and, perhaps, a tad intimidating, aspects of blogging is exposing your work to a literal world of other bloggers. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to see that  your posts are being viewed on other continents, and to be able to correspond with so many good writers, worldwide, who have fascinating experiences, observations,  and information to share. As the old maxim goes, “The sky’s the limit.”

Years and years ago, when I was teaching writing at a small junior college, no one imagined that writers would have this wide-open window on the world. We emphasized the importance of cogent  presentation, using legitimate research to support hypotheses, and, of course, adherence to the structural “rules.” Don’t get me started—I will NEVER give up the Oxford comma!

As educators, we knew that being able to speak and write with clarity and grace could shape our students’ success not only in other academic disciplines, but also in the world beyond the campus. How many times, later in my multi-layered career, did I hear that “so-and-so” was a capable worker but just couldn’t express him/herself well? Being articulate, in writing and speech, matters.

Back in the day, if you aspired to be a writer, the pathways were somewhat limited: journalism; advertising or public relations; or business/technical/scientific writing. I started out in the first, moved to the second, and then the third. For much of my work life, I longed for the time and inspiration to write whatever I wanted to, driven not by the illusion that I had anything remarkable to say, but by my own need for a creative outlet. Judging by all of the blogs I’ve come to enjoy, I’m not the only one.

Much as I might deride the way we have become slaves to our electronic leashes, it is precisely the electronic universe that has given me and many fellow bloggers the opportunity to communicate with, reach out to, learn from, or laugh with, just about anyone. That’s fairly miraculous, isn’t it?

There’s a blog out there for just about every interest and taste—art, photography, travel, food,  parenting, style, faith, and that fascinating form we now call “flash fiction.” Now that we are #retired, we have time to enjoy them. Now and then, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite posts from other bloggers with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

First suggestion:  Take a stroll with restless jo.

Photo: Looking out over the Androscoggin in Oxford County, Maine.