As a girl I pondered: what if every day I wake up in a different body with a different life in a different place, country, or continent? Although this fantastical scenario explained why things I’d never experienced seemed familiar, I finally accepted that it just wasn’t true (or logical or possible – hey, I was an imaginative kid!).

It took years to recognize that my love of reading—mostly fiction—accounted for this kinship with the thoughts and feelings of others.

I’ve always loved a good story. In novel form, they consume my imagination until I forget to eat, sleep, or even go to the bathroom. I prop up in bed and read until my eyes won’t stay open and the words stop making sense.

In blog form, your stories provide a daily fix, they connect me with other women doing the same things I’m doing in unique ways. Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry. Always I gain insight from the experiences you share.

When your point-of-view syncs comfortably with mine, I feel affirmed. When it differs, you open my eyes. While I may not always agree, I understand you and your position better.

In the debate class I tutor, my students research both sides of an issue and often don’t find out whether they’re affirmative or negative until minutes before the debate begins. Understanding both sides is key. I advise them to be winsome—sweetly or innocently charming; winning; engaging—in both debate and real life.

The capacity to understand others more fully is worth developing.

The blog world is buzzing with the news that Google Reader will close on July 1. Many blog readers who depend on this service to keep track of the blogs they read are searching for alternatives. Based on reviews I’ve read from Michael Hyatt and Amy Lynn Andrews, this week I imported my Google Reader account into Feedly.

I’m most likely to keep up with blogs I subscribe to by email (click here if you’d like to receive my posts in your inbox!), but in an effort to manage my unread mail (yes, that icon shows that I currently  have 21,900 unread messages) I’m committed to cleaning up and using my (new) reader more.

When your reader contains blogs that haven’t updated since 2007, a little housekeeping is in order. Here’s where you can help me:

What are your favorite blogs? The ones that inspire, encourage, and engage you?

Please give a shout out to your favorite bloggers and a link to their site in the comments!

{Your comments may not appear until I approve it – my blog thinks that comments with more than one or two links in them are spam!}