People ask, “Who reads your blog?”

Certainly I know some regulars. Truth is, I don’t know. There is a statistical meter that registers how many people read a particular post but not their names or location. Generally, the site gets about 35 “hits.” Once is a while this explodes to 75 or more.

The biggest surprise is the few comments posted on the site itself. Most people who respond are people I know and do so via an email or face-to-face.

My brother in Florida tells me I’m too “churchy.” He’s asked me to stop “preaching”. Family members have been telling me that long before I had a blog!

Some people tell me they read regularly but I use too many big words. That too is a criticism I’ve heard many times in other contexts.

My closest friends and some family are more honest, “Richard, sometimes I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.”  I take that critique more seriously!

A special friend and highly regarded journalist advised me early on about readers. She said, “Of course, you hope people will want to read what you write. But don’t write for them. Write for yourself because you have something to say.” Her admonition resonates with my motivations so I have tried to remain faithful to her wise counsel.

Readership is not insignificant to my purpose, however. I write because I care passionately about life, God, other people and this creation. I hope never to come across as doctrinaire or a know-it-all. Yet, I do have a perspective that I hope will at least be received as well-considered. I do not aspire to make converts! Mostly, I want to provoke thinking, stimulate conversation and inspire action about things that matter.

Some longtime, faithful readers will detect a change in tone since Kneading Bread debuted in January 2014. This is the result of me learning this craft better, a sincere effort to take seriously the feedback I’ve received, but also the fact that I am in a very different place today than I was eighteen months ago. I hope you agree that Kneading Bread is also better as a result.

All this having been said, there remains the necessary but nettlesome matter of the fine art of shameless self-promotion. That is to say, if you like what you see here please tell others and direct them to the site. Invite them to select the “Follow” option that generally appears near the bottom or click the “Subscribe by Email” icon in the right-hand column.

For despite my professed disinterest in numbers, writing for 75 rather than 35 would feed my still robust ego needs.  To all of you who have read through to this point I express my sincere thanks.