FOUR YEARS AGO TODAY

On January 22, 2007, I wrote my first post here at Wounded Bird as a lark, and I never thought I'd still be blogging away four years later. I never once thought that blogging would turn out to be serious, a ministry, of sorts - at least that's how it seems to me. Although I post jokes, cartoons, and funny stories, I feel a responsibility toward my readers, which I take very seriously. And I feel a responsibility to tell certain stories and promote certain causes, as well as post prayer requests, as they come in.

Without my visitors (I can count you) and my readers who leave comments, I would not have continued for so long a time. In great part, I have been blessed with wonderful feedback in the comments, with only a few brief periods of being plagued with offensive or trollish comments. Without the folks I call my stringers, the people who send me links, stories, cartoons, and jokes, Wounded Bird would be much the poorer.

Imagine my surprise when I visited The Lead on December 28 and saw this in their "2010: Top Ten Stories" post:

Our top blogs to quote: Wounded Bird and Thinking Anglicans

Moi! As I said in the comments:

Episcopal Café had a great year. Thanks to all of you for your hard work. My posts would be fewer, if not for the stories for which I owe a tip of the hat to you folks at EC.

I am honored and humbled by having my blog quoted. Truly! I don't deserve the distinction, etc., etc., etc., but I thank all you good people from my heart.

Th folks at the Café have been good to me. I wasn't going to link to the post at the EC, because it seemed prideful and self-serving, which it is, but consider the mention an anniversary indulgence.

This post is No. 4713, which averages to more than 1000 posts per year. Amazing!

PS: I fixed the link above to my original post at Wounded Bird.