Blogger Convention

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (KJV)

There was a blogger convention in Crystal River, Florida yesterday. It was a small affair, only three people. I’m sorry if you weren’t invited. My husband was acting like I was going off to join a cult, “why do you feel the need to take a woman you met on the Internet to meet a man you met on the Internet?” so I felt compelled to keep the group small this first time. You were there in spirit though as we talked about some of our favorite blogs and bloggers (all good things I assure you). Florida Cracker ( www.pureflorida.blogspot.com ), Vicki ( http://amarkonmywall.wordpress.com/ ) and I met at Crackers Restaurant for a two and a half hour gabfest. A thread of our conversation was how blogging creates these relationships even deeper than some of our real life friendships. How bonds build between strangers so great that you grieve when they grieve and laugh when they laugh. We shared more than our humanness and our blogginess. We talked of parenthood, those amazing moments when you can’t believe that your DNA birthed such a wonderful human being, the depths of despair that sometimes come when you think they are making tragic choices and the rapture when they succeed. We talked of pets, their oddities, their comfort and the sadness at their passing. We talked of the joys and pain of Florida life, the heat, the humidity, the curious landscape and animals, the skin cancer from the sun. We talked about the craft of blogging. The difficulties of daily posting, getting photos to load, thinking of something to say. We shared worries about what our co workers and families think about our musings. Finding a balance between story telling and too much information. Wonders over who the people are who read and why they find our life stories compelling. We exchanged gifts that reflected our personalities and what we’ve learned about each other. Vicki brought pasta, cheese and an out of print book found after searching through second hand shops. I provided glass, created using some of FC’s photos as inspiration. FC supplied Florida wine, made in his town from native grapes. A taste of home. Caught by surprise at the swift passage of time, we tore ourselves away from the table, Vicki and I to wander a little farther into the countryside, FC to take his red jeep and camera home and then, on another adventure with his copilot Bear. We snagged a stranger to take a picture of the three of us at the first Florida Bloggers Convention. We promise to post later. A triumvirate of smiling faces on three different blogs on the same night. On the way home, I reflected upon the day. I thought even with all we knew about each other from print, how sweet it was to meet face to face and hear the stories personally. It explains exactly why God sent His Son into this world. God became man, and we can know Him better because of that humanness.