Last June, I started a blog and I started reading blogs. When I found a blog I really liked, I would check out all the people on the blogroll. I found other blogs I liked. I found some people and some people found me. I still read some of those blogs. They're like old friends at my blog party. I feel like I know them.
This week my sister, Boots, (yes, the one who just had a birthday) called to say her daughter was sick again. They'd spent six hours in the hospital. It was bacterial pneumonia. Boots was frustrated by her pediatrician and needed to find a specialist. Her daughter was a preemie. She has asthma and is prone to respiratory infections. We talked on the phone and I felt pretty useless.
I am a continent away and there is very little I can do besides make sympathetic noises and pray. Then I suddenly remembered – I have a friend in Portland, Oregon. A blog friend who shares some common interests and her daughter has asthma! So, I drop her an email and before the evening's up I have some suggestions and some places to help my sister start looking. She even said to pass her email along if my sister would like to talk.
This, all of this, from a woman who has never met me. A woman who knows me only from this blog and her own. This is what is powerful about blogging and we should not forget it.
I have a friend in Portland and believe me, she has a grateful friend in San Antonio.
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Laura, I couldn't agree more. I suppose for some people the internet is not much more than an anonymous playground, but for others it is an opportunity for genuine connection. When I was putting my blogroll together this weekend, I kept thinking, "I know so many people in Texas and Minnesota" How cool is that? A big world smaller. I love it. Your family is in my prayers tonight.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the prayers. My niece is better today but still not out of the woods.
ReplyDeleteI am genuinely moved by the connections I've made through this blog. I consider you a friend.
I'm glad you could find your niece the help she needed.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm figuring your sis gave your niece an entire pot of hot, black coffee, per my suggestion?
ReplyDeleteI give the BEST free medical internet advice.
(And to people who think I'm kidding -- the caffeine really can settle the lungs down a little sometimes.) (Am not medical professional, btw.)
Some do not get my connection with my blogger friends, but you do, Other Laura, so it doesn't matter if they don't.
That's the word that came to mind while reading your post: "connection". I remember when I was a young mom (before going back to work for a couple of years)-- it was lonely! All of my friends were deep into their "careers", and I felt really alone as a mother.
ReplyDeleteThe internet and blogging have really changed all that. Women reach out, and other women respond. It's inspiring, wonderful really.
Can I use the word "really" any more?? It is so early here, and my brain is still asleep. WAKE UP BRAIN! REALLY!
ReplyDeleteWow, Laura. Was it really 4:30 when you posted? And I thought I got up early...really!
ReplyDeleteNancy, I so appreciate your help. The internet never ceases to amaze me. Starting this blog was the best baby-step out of my comfort zone I ever took!
Once we start leaving comments on each others' blogs, we're no longer anonymous--we are connecting. And that connection is no less real than connecting to the neighbor down the street. And oddly, I am more connected to my blog friends (whom I've never met in person) than I actually am to the neighbor down the street. I'm not sure if that's good or bad.
ReplyDeleteAnyway--I'm glad your niece is doing better!