Featured Friend

Friday

Welcome to Featured Friend Friday!

Today I introduce to you Sonal, a wonderful and inspiring writer I recently met through a blogging community.

I encourage you to stop by her  page, LOVE MOMENTS LOVE LIFE, and enjoy her inspirational sharing of her journey, her photos, recipes and more, you won’t be disappointed!

Be sure to  show her some love while there and while here!

 

Living In The Blogosphere

Have you been blogging? We all have this innate need to feel connected to the universe around us in some way or the other. For some of us, its community centers and for some others, it’s zumba or step class…. the list goes on.

In nurturing this urge to connect to the world around, blogging has been an enriching experience.

If you haven’t already explored this realm, I would highly encourage you to try and write your daily experiences or just browse around and view some blogs in your areas of interest.

This is about the beautiful things I’ve experienced from blogging.

For the past few months, I have been living in the blogosphere. ‘Well! Not literally living but, making my fair share of efforts to reach out. I haven’t been stuck to the computer or anything like that.’

I have spent a lot more quality time with my family discussing little things that really matter in life. Kunal (my husband) & I have shared stories that we never imagined possible and developed wonderful new hobbies.

Back in September last year, I started my blogging journey on WordPress. Over the past few months, I have discovered talented bloggers around the world & learned so much from them. None of this would’ve been possible without blogging.

Cooking & More

A year ago, cooking was one thing that just did not interest me. It was a chore.

“Aaargh! Do I have to cook? Can we just eat sandwiches or go out for dinner?” The little voice in my head started harping away somewhere close to dinner time.

As I continued blogging, I found this new world of food blogs & the recipes were to die for. The pictures were mind blowing and reading these delightful articles made me want to cook. For Thanksgiving, I actually cooked with a friend and we had a ball. We took pictures and spent the day bonding.

Today, I’m absolutely in love with experimenting new recipes and blending in my love for photography as I cook.

It’s wonderful how our horizons can expand if we chose to answer that call and extend our arms beyond our comfort zone.

Writing

As far as I can remember, I wrote poems, essays and read lots of story books. Somewhere in middle school and college, I forgot all about writing. Life happened & I just lost touch with this hobby.

Recently, I got in touch with a wonderful writer from Australia. I have been following her work for a while now and am a big fan. She has achieved tremendous success in merely 6 months of her freelance career.  A ghost-writing contract is already under her belt. An editor for a leading site, this writer was gracious enough to critique my writing and give me feedback in email.

It was the most inspiring and energizing experiences to connect with her. Somewhere deep inside, the passion to write was rekindled with her spirits.

Encouragement & supportive words can sometimes move mountains.

Working out

My husband Kunal has been cajoling me into working out regularly for 3 years now. I’ve been on and off with my workouts. Working to get back on track each time things go haywire.

The blogosphere has opened up my world to such a variety of athletes – fitness experts, runners, dancers, gym rats… you name it!  “How could one not be inspired if you read about all the fitness tips from these idols?” I continue to struggle with working out but, the motivation from reading tweets, posts and messages from so many fit people is unsurpassable. I believe that soon, I will achieve my fitness goals.

It’s all about who we connect with & what surrounds us. Connecting with inspirational individuals has connected me to an intense amount of positive & life-giving energy.

Let’s blog

We read books, magazines and the news. Living in the blogosphere is more surreal than that. It’s better than TV or movies.

The magic is in the written word.

As experienced by just another passer-by on the cross-roads of life. A precious gift handed down to us & the generations to come. It is the biggest learning experience for me and yet, so simple and naïve in appearance.

How else would you meet a cancer survivor and hear about their stories and inspirational struggles on a daily basis?

In the end, the journey is invaluable and the destination just a byproduct. I’m excited about the future this experience holds & so happy to have found Marti who let me feature this post on her wonderful blog.

Thanks so much Marti.

Sonal