Musings: Breaking The Ice…

They say the ice age ended years ago. Why are there icicles everywhere?  Bei Dao aka Zhao Zhenkai

Musings: Breaking The Ice…

I was delighted when I read this week’s writing challenge – Break The Ice.  Why? Because from the first day I signed up for my WordPress blog in 2008, I felt in my heart that connecting with a diverse group of bloggers within a global community was a fantastic opportunity for us all. Back then, I didn’t quite know how to navigate the maze of blogs, topics, and bloggers, and so relied heavily on WP support for guidance. Over time, the WP staff and happiness engineers gave us the Daily Post challenge and we never looked back. Now at our fingertips, we have hundreds of thousands of blogs/bloggers to connect with and continue our online conversations. This exercise was another reminder to venture out of our comfort zone. There’s an exciting world out there to explore…

“The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around; / It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, / Like noises in a swound!” Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Musings: Breaking The Ice…

I jumped right into challenge and got to connect with 5 terrific blogs.  Here’s what I did. First, I clicked on the Reader  link Michelle provided. Then on the words WordPress.com,  and last I clicked on Recommended Blogs. The image above showed up and I chose five topics/categories for my new blog visits. Spurred on by excellent choices, I gladly selected 5 and paid my visits and read/liked and commented on their posts. I even lingered a bit on a couple of them to learn more. I read the About pages too.  I visited the following topics/blogs/bloggers: Cars:  RedstripedAdventure had a great post on the Ferrari Festival a luxury car fundraising effort for kids.; Crafts: Next was CaliforniaPixie for a delicious looking post and recipe on Piping hot buns;  Then Culture: 2Summers.net is Heather; an American suburbanite in Jo’burg, South Africa, with a powerful story and photography to share; Then on to  Sports: CyclingDutchGirl, is bravely cycling the world and now through the Torres Strait Island in Australia… and Finally, last but not least, Humor: Publikworks had me laughing out loud in front of my laptop (wanna look like a lunatic? Do it in public), as she shared facets of her life on the job as a freezer packer. I didn’t tell them WP sent me but I hope they accepted my comments. They were all brilliant. How did you do?

“Listen. If we can’t break the ice, how ’bout we drown it?”  Paul Bettany

Musings: Breaking The Ice…

Truth be told, I do get to visit and connect with new bloggers when we have the weekly photo challenge but this was different. I got to visit blogs that were not part of a structured event and not in my sphere of blogging reach. I enjoyed it thoroughly and got to read blogs on new topics and learn new and useful information.  I’d do it again.  What are your thoughts? What do you do to break the ice? Do you have a strategy for connecting? Do share! Thank you. :-)Have a playful, restful Thanksgiving week!

*Please bear with me as I catch up on your blogs and commenting… Thank you all for your patience! 🙂

This post was inspired by a prompt from WP Daily Post: Weekly Writing Challenge: Break The Ice
This week, find five blogs you’ve never read before, and leave substantive comments on each of them. Many of you have blogrolls of your regular reads and subscribe to blogs you love, which is great. Now step outside that circle, and see if you can broaden it.
Ask for clarification of a point you didn’t quite understand.
Introduce another post or piece of information on the topic and explore how it fits with the blogger’s take.
Share a personal experience you’ve had related to the topic. However, we’d love if you followed up on this exercise with a post about the experience; if you do write one, feel free to drop a link here and use the DPchallenge tag so we can find you. Now go forth and opine!

Positive Motivation Tip: Venture out of your comfort zone and grow… There’s an exciting world out there to explore…

PHOTO CREDITS/ATTRIBUTIONS: All Photos Icicle Curvies, Yamal – IceBreaker ship,  via Wikipedia

Until Next Time…
Ask. Believe. Receive. ©
Elizabeth Obih-Frank
Mirth and Motivation
Positive Kismet

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