Let me start by saying I have been truly blessed to have people regularly stop by and read my thoughts. It’s been encouraging to me in a great many ways unique to the way writing and blogs can produce conversation. Here, I can share deep thoughts I’ve been reflecting on and not only have the opportunity to be listened to, but also to engage in a conversation that challenges my thinking and spurs me on to being a better person.

In an effort to encourage the conversation even further, and to bless you and others through the conversation, I’ve implemented something called Comment Love. Some Random Dude, gave me the idea and I thought it was a neat way to both encourage further conversation and support some good causes at the same time. Here’s the run down of Comment Love:

• Each comment in the May is worth $0.25 that will be given away at the end of the month.
• The comments should be thoughtful and engage in the conversation (no trying to run up the numbers).
• The limit will be $50 (Sorry, the pockets aren’t that deep), but if it’s a success I might try again next month.
• I haven’t decided which organization to give to yet, so I’ll let the top commenters decide at the end of the month (Anyone gonna give Jamie a run for her money?). Here’s the options I had in mind: Kiva, Invisible Children, or IJM

There’s no catch or anything fancy here, just a chance to spread the love a little and encourage the conversation. I have made a few other changes to the blog recently also. Here’s a brief explanation…

• New Design– A while ago I mentioned wanting to change my blog to a dark background to save energy. This was a great design I’ve been hoping to use that recently became available.
• Gravatars– I’ve added an icon/image/gravatar feature, that’s your little profile picture next to your comments. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for one at gravatar.com. It’s extremely easy and only takes a minute to enter your email and upload your image. (If you don’t, I might end up figuring out how to choose one for you myself 😉
• Share This- For those who like passing on blog posts, this link should make it easy. If you do any social bookmarking it’s got everything listed, and if you want to email someone it’s easy as pie, just enter their email address!
• WordPress 2.1– Not that most of you care, but I upgraded to 2.1, it’s nice.
• Asides- This is going to be a collection of mini random posts that will only be available on the bog, not through the rss or email subscriptions. Stay tuned.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to subscribe to the blog posts or comments so you can easily keep updated on the conversation.