Five for Ten

How do you ask people to stop and take a look at your blog for five minutes a day, ten days in a row, so that you can have a chance at proving yourself?

Wait, no. It’s not proof you need. It’s connection. To give and to get. To form. It’s helping people understand that you want is to create a space that is so full of connections that they feel compelled to touch base. It is building this place where we speak to each other. Where the writer reaches out and the reader reaches back. Where the conversations flourish and the writers and readers inspire one another. Where we comment and connect. Where we look for more. Of everything. More understanding. More community. More home away from home.

One of my first connections in the blog world gave me this overwhelming gift recently:

Because of you, my life is easier.

I sent her a reply immediately, one of those ones where you let the thinking be done through the words that you are typing and you don’t-look-back. Full of love and honesty and enormous gratitude. I’m sure that she, Liz, does not wholly understand what those seven words have done for me. They have propelled me into more writing, more thinking, and more translating of my life for the purpose of this blog. It’s what I want to be able to say to other women all the time: because of you, my life is easier. But I don’t and I can’t because a) it’s a gift not to be squandered and b) I’d likely be seen as some kind of creepy stalker if I said it in person. I can be a little bit too open and honest at times. I have a tendency to give my weighted words away quite easily. I consider it a gift most of the time, but I’m not sure people always know how to react. Here on the blog, however, life is different. I write and you read and we hope to connect somehow. It is not face to face and thus it is more free, and more peaceful.

I am amazed by the people I have met thus far through the blog, and the connections that have formed. Lindsey, Liz, Heather, Becca, and Aidan. The Kitchen Witch, Stone Fox and Little Big Wolf. These are far from all of my virtual connections, but I have no need to stop looking and thinking about more. So I’ve asked myself how to keep and gain momentum, and this is what I’ve come up with.

The 10 days of Loving.
Wait, that sounds like an advertisement for the Beacon of Light.

How about the 10 days of Friendship?
Hmm. Boring. Hokey.

Bear with me, I’m a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal.

Perhaps I should just tell you that we want you to give us 5 minutes of your time for 10 days in a row and we’ll do the same. All right then, it’s Five for Ten. This is really no different than any other day for us over here, as we try to give at least 5 minutes to each reader every day. Whether through a direct reply, an email or a visit to your blog, Jen and I are so enamored with you for taking the time to join our world over here that we make every effort of joining yours. However, we are here to pledge ourselves to each and everyone of you in the spirit of making new connections with a wealth of amazing people out there. If you don’t so happen to have a blog, ’tis quite alright. You’ll get extra time in an email, I’m sure, which can be kind of funny if you catch me during a night of wine. Um, right. We all know how that turned out. (Yes, again with that darn LED reference – I’m still laughing at myself so give me a break.)

What on earth do I have to do? All we are asking is that you come here to Momalom and read our posts and comment for 10 days in a row. So sorry for the short notice (reference the fly-by-seat-of-pants comment) but this will begin on Sunday, November 15. Yes, Sunday. This coming Sunday. Today is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday. The next day is Sunday. I think that covers the calendar.

So, why would I even want to come here for 10 days in a row? What if I don’t like what I see on the first time around? Well, that’s kind of shallow, don’t you think? I mean, did you really, truly fall in love with your spouse at first sight? You did? Really? Well, here’s the thing. Give us 10 days. Just do it. Just try. There are two of us here and we’re both quite moody so chances are you’ll be able to find some ONE thing to connect with over the course of ten days, and that might just be enough to foster a new connection in your life. Or perhaps you’ll find us boring but you’ll love one of the other readers. Don’t worry, we won’t be offended. We’ve got some pretty awesome readers.

What’s in it for me? Okay, besides more connection (and meaning) in your life, we are willing to send out both virtual hugs and virtual high fives, depending on your level of intimacy. I could be swayed to send you a personal video greeting if you are willing to look past my frazzled demeanor OR you may just find yourself wearing a brand spankin’ new Momalom T-shirt. Yup, you heard me. Free clothes. We are working on it and it’s coming your way if you commit to Five for Ten and follow through. Yes, we’re a little bit off our rockers over here. Yes, I know. But we love to write. And we love to read. So why not look for reasons to do more of both while making new connections along the way?

Who is this for? So maybe this sounds like it is more for us than for you, is that what you are thinking? Nope, it’s really about community. We want to build a larger net to fall back on. We want to be able to validate one another for all the precious time that is taken away from the other people and moments in our lives by our choice to blog. I would even extend this invite to all the A-list bloggers out there if I could get hold of them because, really, do you ever have enough connections in your life? I don’t. I really don’t. I’m always looking for more. And I find it far easier to make them here on the blog than in my real life, to be honest. I have much more time to sit in front of this computer than in a coffee shop trying to figure out if we could be friends or not while our kids run circles around the table hyped up on over-sized M&M cookies. Obviously I digress, but this is for everyone. It’s not for your readership, or for your stats, it is for us to find more people to listen to our voices – yours and mine – because if we can join our communities, our worlds, think about how many more people we can inspire and be inspired by. That’s powerful.

Promises. You commit to us for 10 days and we’ll commit to you. Also, this post is the exception to my 5 minute tagline. I don’t seem to know how to shut the hell up tonight.

I know that it’s short notice, that there is no big sponsorship, no money, no product, no tangible incentive, but there’s me and Jen just completely willing to give ourselves away over here. I’m sure that we are enough if you just give us a chance. A chance to be there for you as much as you are there for us.

I’m almost not brave enough to post this but I keep thinking about Jen’s last post. As I reread it, I get braver. Yes.

So let’s make some new friends. I’m game, are you? And also? Those T-shirts are going to be pretty darn cute. And free. Free like my words are free, so eat it up!

Tagged as: Five for Ten, nablopomo