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Whether you go to Amazon and buy the book or not, do yourself a favor and subscribe to Seumas's entertaining blog. It's joined my very short list of daily reads.
What I want to write about though today, is something a little different. Seumas' philosophy of life and blogging got me thinking. I had been moving in the same direction, but reading his words pulled it all together for me. And it all ties in with the Law of Attraction, wouldn't you know.
The Money Bugbear
A few days ago, Nathalie Thompson at Vibe Shifting generously published a guest post I wrote. You can read all about my slightly twisted relationship with money, and how I recently got clarity on a little piece of the bigger issue. Letting go of the need to be the rich American who funds the Mexican dog rescue is a huge step for me. Huge! My ears are popping all the time, which is my own little personal sign from the Universe that energy is shifting. Pop, pop. There it goes.
Now, I am not, have never been, and probably will never be a rich American. I live in Mexico because I love it, with the giant added benefit that I live nicely on a relatively small pension. The urge to fund a rescue shelter had led me to release my novels on the Kindle market in the first place, to hit the jackpot of sales for a good cause.
The first day I 'met' Seumas, and I can't even remember who introduced us, I was in the middle of a partial meltdown. If I wasn't promoting my books because I needed lots of money for the dogs, why was I putting in twelve hour days tweeting, blogging, and Facebooking, not to mention trying to figure out Goodreads and now Google+? Arggg!
Here's the Law of Attraction part.
When I was ready to realize that the pressure to fund dog rescue was a purely self-imposed strain, the Universe put the lovely Nathalie in my path, to invite me to write a guest post, which gave me the opportunity to wrestle through to a happier emotion.
That's how the LoA works. Even when you're not ready, the opportunities are all there. You just can't see them. When you finally drop the blinders, the resolution is so clear and simple it makes you weep, or jump around doing a happy dance!
And here comes the Law of Attraction again. Just when I'm struggling with the next layer of the onion, I meet someone who can articulate a clear vision of where I'm going and why I'm going there. Thank you, Universe! Thank you, Seumas! I didn't even wallow for very long—just a day or two. When you open yourself to change, it comes roaring through.
The Evolution of a Blogger/Human Being
By now I hope you're really curious about what this message is that I've learned, or reaffirmed, from reading The Blogger's Guide. It's simple really, and it's more like a booster shot for things I was already doing. We can blog from a spirit of generosity, nothing more, pure generosity. Seumas does, and I can too. Just share. Joy, bounty, encouragement, kind words. Just share it all.
Tweet this, okay? I have no idea how to set it up as a link. Maybe you can figure it out.
Just share. Joy, bounty, encouragement, kind words.
Just share it all.
What Seumas communicates effortlessly, and what he reminded me of in The Blogger's Guide, is the sheer joy of touching lives and being touched. He writes about how he stumbled into the fun of blogging after starting his blog as a purely promotional tool. Me too! I realized about a month ago that what I really enjoy about blogging is not the promoting, but the writing about all the amazing things in my life. If you happen to see a book cover and want to buy a book, Woohoo! But it's kind of secondary to the other fun.
Right now, last night, today, I needed that reminder and I was ready to listen. And there were Seumas and The Blogger's Guide, ready to nudge me in the right direction!
#TBSU
Seumas has a group called #TBSU, the (arrg, I can never remember what the letters stand for!), okay, The Blog Scratcher's Union. It's a hashtag for bloggers who support each other's writing: You scratch my back, I scratch yours. As of today, please consider me a member.
If you are a blogger and reading this, consider putting #TBSU on your posts and Tweets. It's like a secret (but it's not a secret) handshake to other bloggers. You help me. I'll help you. Go to Seumas blog for a complete explanation of how it all works, or read the book! (Woohoo! A plug!)
My minor addition takes the idea a baby step further.
#BAT (We could have a bat signal, or something!)
When I meet a blogger that I like, I want to read their posts. Not just the new ones, but all of them or at least most. Sifting through a whole blog full of archives is way too much. So what I propose is that the #TBSU adopt the additional hashtag of #BAT to identify a Blog Archive Tweet! There are some bloggers out there who are brilliant at tweeting me into reading their archives, and I really appreciate it! Check out
@CassandraPage01
@Kevin_Hanrahan2
@MindfulHealth
@VibeShifting
to name just a very few master archive tweeters. What makes this tactic work is that every single one of the archives they tweet is well worth reading! I search the Twitterverse for posts from them to read and RT.
Tweet Your Best Archives with the Hashtag #BAT
How about if we make it a little easier, folks? Tweet your best archives, the ones that don't lose their timeliness, with the hashtag #BAT, Blog Archive Tweet. You'll make my Twitter searching easier, and maybe the idea will catch on through the #TBSU world! We can tweet and share and spread the joy not only across space but across time!
I don't want to imply that I have any kind of endorsement from Seumas for #BAT. He has never heard of it before reading this post. And I hope I'm not shamelessly hanging my hat onto an already hugely successful hashtag. It just seems to me that maybe we could all have a little more fun, and make our blogs just a little more alive.
So what do you think? Are you already using #TBSU? If not, why not start? When you discover a wonderful blog, do you like to read archived posts, like me? Would you look for the hashtag #BAT? Will you start using it? As always, I'm eager to read your comments! How about a lively discussion of the joys of blogging? Thank you again for starting the conversation, Seumas. And y'all—buy his book!
Oh yeah, oh yeah. And buy my books too, okay? The links are on the right side of the page. Whew! Marketing done. Check.
