Shout out to dedication!

What is dedication? It is: self-sacrificing, wholehearted devotion or commitment to a specific cause, person, or task. In this instance, I'm talking about loyalty to a thing or person. I knew after my last post I needed to do a little shout-out to a few people. Clearly, their dedication to me - and more specifically my blog posts, hit me hard in a good way.

We are all busy - life, work, friends, home, etc. So when someone takes the few minutes it takes to actually read my blog AND write a reply, comment, or rate me (even with 1 star...), I feel incredibly special. I expect most people in my circle won't or don't take the time to read whatever I've written. Which, honestly, is something that hurts, but I don't make a big deal about it. It hurts that my closest friends or family don't read it - why? Because I like to think that I support them in every way possible. However...not the point for this post.

Dedication - to reading my little blog, which is mostly about the 21 cats. I get it - reading or hearing the same stupid stories... no one wants to do that. But the small handful that checks it out, comments, and truly is waiting for the next post to come means the world to me.

I haven't even been super dedicated to my own blog and website. Life happens, and I fall into a slump of having nothing to write about or feeling that I shouldn't write about whatever little thought I had. But here I sit—writing about dedication. I encourage everyone to find something small to dedicate a piece of yourself to. Really—it's easy and doesn't take a ton of time. (Secretly, I'm hoping you'll choose to read my blog more regularly.)

So here goes - first shout out goes to: My father-in-law - Charlie. Did he ask to get the weekly email with my latest blog post link? Nope. Does he read it regularly? Yep. Does he leave a comment on the actual blog page? Not at all. But what he does do is a step above that. He replies to the email (which comes directly to ME). It's never just a simple "nice work" or "read your blog" kind of thing. It's a few sentences. This last email he sent - I see your blogs are not woke talk - your words make sense to me. Yep - my blogs are written just like I talk, mostly. I do actually use a spell/grammar check on them. My weakness is spelling and grammar - even though I read a lot. Of all people to read/follow/comment, he might not have been at the top of the list I had. BUT I absolutely love it. Because I do love him, we've always had good conversations - even if we don't agree on everything. (Hello religion and politics!) I hope he keeps on reading and emailing, and one day - maybe commenting on the blogs for everyone to see!

Second up - my friend Babs. I know she reads them; it's hit or miss if she reads each one. But in some way, she will let me know she's read one of them, usually by text. This last time, she tried to leave a comment, and it didn't work - it came through as a contact submission to my email. But she ended up texting me to ask where the selfie of me and the constable was. So, for all those wondering... YES, there was a selfie with the (don't read this, Gene) hottie constable. Will it ever be on the internet? ABSOLUTELY NOT. One - technically, it's not legal to be getting selfies with any sort of law enforcement on duty in uniform. Second - there's a LOT of personal information that can be seen or gotten from that photo. So, if you want to see it - you have to actually know me and have my current phone number! So please, Babs - keep on reading and maybe get the comment thing figured out!

Third up - my husband Gene - who is supportive in everything I do, even if he doesn't quite show it. My blog is one of those things that he supports (he's put in lots of time helping me get the backend working when I get stuck) but actually doesn't read the majority of the posts I write. Which is okay - generally speaking, he's lived through whatever I'm writing about. But every so often, he does read them when I least expect it. He read the one about AI (which we STRONGLY disagree on) and then - he read the constable one. For the first time, he actually left a comment AND had the nerve to leave me a one-star review. I'm certain he did that in fun and joking, which will take forever for me to get to a better 5-star rating (nudge nudge, rate all the blogs you read at 5 stars, please!)

Fourth up - Anne - she's a local Annville friend who I met through the Celebrate Annville Committee and the Friends of the Annville Free Library committee. We are both pet sitters - nice to have someone to refer people to when I'm booked! Again - she's got her own life & kid, so choosing to read about my life and cats warms my heart.

Fifth up - Sharon H. She's a longtime friend whom I met many years ago in a class we both took for our jobs. She's hit or miss also with reading, but she does read them when she remembers or has the time.

I'm sure there are other readers—I just don't hear from them that they have read.

For each person that does read, comment, or share my blog, I really and truly appreciate it. I enjoy writing these blogs—knowing there are some people out there reading them warms my heart a little bit each time I hear someone has taken the time to read it.

Til our tails cross again,

Melanie

#blogger #lovecatsandeverything #purrfectdozen #dedication #followers