Wednesday night the Cosmosphere hosted the Kansas Museums Association as part of its conference in Hutchinson. I had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Jami, a blog reader who I've connected with on Facebook. It was just wonderful to meet her and get a chance to talk face to face.I'm amazed at what you can learn about a person's life from those brief status updates in Facebook. I feel like I have a small sense of what Jami's days are like and I love that. I'm so very glad we are able to connect in that way.
For a long time I had a note on the bottom of each blog post, asking people to friend me in Facebook, but it has been rare that anyone has, although people will often tell me when they meet me that they've wanted to. So, this is an open invitation - if you're a blog reader and want to connect on Facebook, please do. I'm there under my own name, so you can find me easily enough. Of course, I don't have the benefit of knowing who's reading, but I'm always flattered when I meet folks.
I was talking about meeting Jami with my friend, Martha, tonight, and how these connections develop because of the writing I do here. And I was reminded of Darla's surprise gift to me this summer and how delighted I was that someone would drop off something just to make me smile. I happened to bump into her at the fair and got to have a nice conversation, which was great. I love feeling connected to people in different ways and love it that writing here leads to that sometimes.
It's always a rare treat to get to spend a few hours in conversation with Martha and I treasure those times. She said something at dinner tonight that really made an impact on me.
"Clearly, you have transitioned."
I'm not even sure what that means yet, but I know it was a moment of real truth. You can recognize those when they happen - it's as if time stands still and the angel choir sings. I wrote it down because I immediately knew it was truth.
Over the last couple of years I have made a conscious effort to change some parts of my personality. Oddly enough, Martha has been a model for some of those things.
I suppose in some ways we are always in transition - good or bad - we're generally in the midst of some kind of change. But, I believe what Martha said is true. I have transitioned. So, now I have the task of defining myself as this new person. I'm not even sure what this person does differently, but I'll figure it out. At this point I just hope it's for the good.
