COMMUNITY and CONNECTION

Hey friends, Happy Wednesday! I am so excited to have my good friend and fellow author, Kimberley Woodhouse, share with you today about the importance of community and connection as both a reader and a writer! I hope you enjoy, and be sure to check out her amazing stories!

I want to challenge and encourage each one of you to make a resolution for this year. (I know, I know, it’s not January, but who says you have to only make resolutions at the beginning of the year?)

The resolution is to find and/or engage in community and connection.

Coming off an amazing weekend with one of my mastermind groups and a reader event has me flying high and exhausted all at the same time. But it’s made me do lots of deep pondering. (Don’t you just love that word? To ponder means to think about and reflect on.)

Sometimes, we get so busy with life that we neglect what our souls need: community, fellowship with others, and deep connection that fills our hearts. We go and go and go with deadlines, family life, church, and kids/grandkids, and before we know it, we are dry, empty, and disconnected.

As avid readers and writers, we desperately need community—fellow lovers of the written word and fellow creatives. But many of us have introverted personalities, and as much as we need community, it also scares us to be among our people. Because… it requires us to be around people, right?

Getting together with others who love the same things makes us feel safe. We have our own tribe, our own family. And events like the MidSummer Mingle at Baker Book House in Grand Rapids, Michigan, this past week were one of those amazing community and connecting times.

You see, it’s not always easy to put ourselves out there and be real. But, oh, how beautiful it is to do that, and when we do—especially at something like this—it blesses us in unexpected ways.

We make new friends.

We realize there are others who love and enjoy the same things.

We are refreshed and soul-filled and heart-happy and can’t wait until the next time we can be with our “family” of book-loving peeps.

We laugh until we cry, like this picture of me, Karen Witemeyer (left), and Pepper Basham (right). We had so much fun simply being together and being real. We’ve been friends for many years, but intentionally being part of a mastermind group has grown and deepened those friendships.

It has been incredible to grow relationships with new friends, too. This past weekend, we shared from our hearts, prayed together, joined in lots of laughter, and got to do one of our favorite things – connect with readers and each other.

So, are you up for the challenge?

Join a book club. Or even better yet – START one!

Attend a reader event like the one last weekend.

Reach out to other readers or bookstagrammers you meet online.

Send your favorite author a message or email.

Connect with other authors via groups like ACFW and AWSA etc. 

I promise you won’t regret intentionally investing in community and connection.

I stole this picture from the amazing Bethany Turner of our Mastermind Group. 

From us to you – lots of love and happy reading!

Until next time, enjoy the journey!

-Kimberley

Kimberley Woodhouse is the bestselling author of more than forty books, which have earned many accolades, including Christian Retailing’s Top Pick, Booklist starred reviews, and multiple Publisher’s Weekly starred reviews. Winner of the Carol Award, the Holt Medallion, the Golden Scroll, the Christian Market Book Award, the Selah, and many others, she is also a popular speaker/teacher and has shared with more than two million people at over 2,500 venues. A lover of history and research, she often gets sucked into the past, and then her husband has to lure her out with chocolate and the promise of eighteen holes on the golf course. Married to the love of her life for three-plus decades, she lives and writes in Colorado, where she’s traded in her hat of “Craziest Mom” for “Nana the Great.” To find out more about Kim’s books, follow her on social media, and sign up for her newsletter/blog, go to: https://kimberleywoodhouse.com