Tuesday Tales: Entering Twenty Years

 

Some people spend the last day of the month reflecting…peering back over the days just traveled. I love a good reflection and am even doing a bit of it myself today, but my reflective thoughts actually direct my gaze forward to July – and twenty years of blogging.

                I told you on my very first post of 2026 that this year was special because it marked twenty years of sharing thoughts in this space. And now we’re on the eve of the actual month that marks that twenty-year milestone.

                Just for fun, I went back to look at the writing that preceded the blog. Oh yes. There was a precursor.

                Back in 2003, a mere three years after earning a writing-focused college degree, I wanted to try to make my mother happy by USING my degree. My job at the time, in financial aid, didn’t afford me many opportunities to write, and Mom lamented all the time and money poured into that writing degree. I did enjoy writing but didn’t have anything structured that pushed me to write regularly.

                I began by writing an email “column” and the first issue found its way into the inboxes of my two sisters, parents, and my brother-in-law. They didn’t ask to receive it. All of them kindly agreed to remaining on the mailing list, and slowly, Mom and I began adding kind friends who said they wanted to read my weekly thoughts.

                I pressed send on that email every Sunday evening, and it became a good deadline for me to craft something purposeful for others to read.

                Honestly, that was the only goal I had from the very start. I wrote this in the very first issue, as I explained the woes of trying to name the column:

                I’ve decided to just call this “Bits from Bekah’s Life.” That doesn’t commit me to an overly enthusiastic mood each week, and yet it allows me to share whatever traipses its way through my little head as I write.

                I have no specific purpose or structure to this endeavor. Mostly I want to do it just to give me an excuse to write and share…and on the weeks when I feel lazy…a drive to write when I’m more tempted to sleep. I make absolutely no promises that I will dazzle you with profound thoughts each time, but I do hope that upon occasion, I can make you think. Or at the very least, I hope you can relate to something I say because it might reflect something from your own life.

                Three years later, that email list morphed into a blog, set up for me by a friend. Through this space, I’ve met people I never would have otherwise known. I have had the chance to have a ministry in this little corner of the web.

                I haven’t done any of it right in terms of creating a platform. I don’t have subscribers and email lists and all the things I “should” have after twenty years. I haven’t narrowed my niche any more than I had that first week when I clumsily introduced this writing endeavor.

                But I have been myself, and I have grown and changed in this space just as I’ve grown and changed in my life.

                My friend Michele sent me a screenshot the other day of an AI summery of my blog – which she accidentally found as she tried to visit the actual blog.

                “Bekah is a lifestyle and faith blogger who…writes about her life, marriage, and personal projects. She and her husband, Ryan, produced and hosted Spill the Beans, a relationship and chat podcast that ran for over 200 episodes. She shares her daily life, routines, and thoughts on Instagram.”

                As much as I hate to give AI too much credit, that is accurate. And I’m proud of that. Twenty years in, I’m not upset that I haven’t amassed a following and found this perfect little niche, and given that I hate the word “collab,” I’m not even upset about not forming networking partnerships with brands.

                I write about life and faith. I always have. My perspectives have grown, changed, and deepened over the years, but I’m just me. I’m here for recipes and stories, scrapbookable moments, vacation recaps, and fun funds.

                So as we stand on the edge of this month that marks 20 years, thanks for being here. Thanks for reading along. Thanks for sharing your lives with me, meeting me in real life, and encouraging me in this little corner. I do love it here. Let’s keep going, shall we?

PS: Throwback to Bekah of 2003...and 2006!