Something more wonderful has been happening for the last couple of days: the number of people who reached me by email reached (or is about to reach) double digits for the first time since… well, since I started having a blog, I think. Oh, and I say “more wonderful” because getting the communication I’m already getting is wonderful.

I always had folks reaching out, though usually through Mastodon or Micro.blog (which is kind of Mastodon also, in a way) and when I wrote about Emacs or org-mode. This time it’s just other bloggers and readers saying hello.

It seems most of them were motivated by my post about, well, writing other bloggers emails… can’t get more to the point than that!

I’m going through the careful process of reading each email fast (to get a feel for it), then seeing if the person who sent it has a website (most of the time, they do), then researching this website to see if I’m adding them to my RSS feed (Inkwell is handling a lot of testing recently), then reading the email again more thoroughly before I answer, which I always do.

It’s a pleasure to read each email. It really is.

Of course, it gives an immediate ego boost when someone takes some time of their day to actually write an email to me (I guess my online ramblings are not that bad after all, says the voice in my head). But besides that, it’s always like opening a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get (cue up the Forrest Gump theme). Each person is unique; each email brings in another whole brain to follow up on, read about, learn from, and talk to. I love it.

If you’re one of these folks who reached out, thank you! I’ll get back to you as soon as my above process allows (and work. And life after work. And after I get some groceries that are aching to be in my fridge. And OK, I also need to exercise. But I’ll get there).

It also makes me want to write more. Not just to new folks I keep finding and adding, but also to those I follow already - either because something they wrote makes me think or because I’m just wondering what’s going on.

Well alrightie then! Let’s start writing some emails.