blogs

I wanted to include Stephanie in this project for two main reasons. First, she’s awesome. Second, she represents the relationships in my life which have been formed through blogging. You see, I’ve never actually met Stephanie. Yesterday when we video chatted for our ‘portrait session’ was the first time we’d ever spoken face to face (as it were).

There is a moment when a reader/commenter relationship on a blog turns into a friendship. I can’t put my finger on exactly where that moment is, but with Stephanie it was soon after discovering each other that we became friends. Much of what I know about her, you could know too if you read her delightful blog. But I’m learning more through our email and phone conversations and we have plans to meet in the flesh this summer.

It’s an oddly intimate relationship where you start from a place of knowing someone before you’ve even met.

I know that Stephanie is trained as a social worker and worked as such until recently. And that she recently made a leap of faith to follow her dream and become a professional photographer. I know that the choice to become a stay at home mother and freelance photographer was driven by passion but that the transition to it’s reality has been somewhat bumpy. I know that Stephanie has deep and private feelings about spirituality and that they aren’t exactly the ones she was raised with. I know that Stephanie takes great pride in being a woman and a mother and that both of these things are paramount in her life choices.

She writes with a strong and irreverent voice but her actual voice is soft and sweet. To me, her photography illustrates her straightforward and insightful view of the world as her images are revealing without being contrived.

And in addition to all these things, I also know that when we finally meet, it will be wonderful.

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Part of what I’m enjoying most about this project is paying attention to the ways in which people come into our lives—how exactly our connections happened. I love tracing back through our stories and remembering the moment we came to know each other. So many factors are at play that could keep us from stopping to say hello, and usually they do. But sometimes all the stars align and a connection is made.

I met Alexis through my friend Chris, who she happens to be married to.

Chris and I met because we frequented the same coffee shop in town. Our kids hit it off and so did we. So I met Alexis briefly once or twice and we would run into each other in the village occasionally. And then, years later, we met again. This time online. I came across her blog (I can’t for the life of me remember how) and she was among the first readers of mine. So we set about getting to know each other—virtually. Even though we live less than a mile from each other we’ve only managed one cup of coffee in the last two years. She is a busy Mama to three small girls and our schedules don’t exactly match up.

Most of what I know about Alexis is what I read on her blog or on Facebook. She is funny. Really funny. And clever and smart and very humble. She has impeccable taste, and did I mention how funny she is? She is  interested in, what I would call, authentic parenting, but also keenly aware of her imperfections and limitations. She has one of those smiles that lights up her entire face but she uses it sparingly as she often seems to be deep in thought about very serious matters. Alexis stays close to home and I don’t really blame her. Her home is warm and inviting and beautiful—and I’m vying for another invitation soon because I really like it when we get to visit with each other.

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