Lately I’ve been in a funk with my writing. It can feel like such a lonely business sometimes. You send things out; sometimes you hear back with
a rejection, most times you hear nothing, and only rarely do you get the
coveted acceptance. Even writing a blog post feels like an echo at times.
Most of the time, I don’t think or worry about it. I just
write because I have something to say or a topic interests me-- and I happen
to find it fun to manipulate words. But the other day, I received an email
response to a post I wrote here about a woman who was born in 1774. The post was about Jane Lea Nixon, who had the unique distinction of being the first
white woman born in the Chartiers Valley in Pittsburgh. If you read the post,
you’ll note that very little is known about this woman outside her claim to
being born white and a female at this point in history (and you might find a picture of an apparition I captured on film, but I make no official claim of this...)
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| Old St. Luke's-- the church associated with Jane Lean Nixon. |
A gentleman I’ve never met wrote to thank me for this short
piece about this relatively unknown woman. She, along with the very old stone
church she is associated with, captured my imagination, but for this man, there
is a deeper significance. He is a direct descendant of Jane Lea Nixon. Her
story was part of his childhood folklore as family members passed on her legend
and significance to his family. He told me he can trace the story back
to his great, great grandmother, but then there is a gap between her and Miss Jane
Lea.
He even went on to mention a minister in an Episcopal Church
in Pittsburgh we both know. He now resides in Arizona, and I in Colorado, but
online, through a blog post and a church in Pennsylvania, our lives intersected. I was so touched that he
contacted me and that something I wrote had special meaning for him.
My friends Jess and Sally write a blog (check it out here)
about their travels around the world. Sometimes they share spectacular photos
from the top of mountain peaks or from deep forests or sometimes the sweet
faces of people around the world. Other times they share haunting stories of
poverty, oppression, and abuse. Each installment of their blog invites me to
share in the journey, not only visually and cerebrally, but more importantly, in
my heart. From across the world, they reach out and share their story so that I can be a part of it. And we connect. Isn't that amazing?
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| Sorry Sally and Jess-- yes, I shamelessly lifted this cute picture from your blog. |
Other blog friends share their writing, photos, spiritual journeys, and humor with readers. The
internet really is like a web--a very apt description--connecting us.
Then I remember
why I write. Truly, it’s not as isolated an activity as I'm sometimes tempted to feel like it is.
And for this reminder—for the comments I receive here, for the emails I get,
for the intersection of lives—I am incredibly grateful. Thanks for being a part of that connection.
