gifts from the land of blog

'many people will walk in and out of your life,

but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.'

- eleanor roosevelt

it has taken me all week to share the experience of monday... perhaps because it has been so very much for me to process... 

after dropping the kids off at school, i went to the station and boarded a train headed to the city... 

i was off to meet two people i had connected with in the land of blog - people i admire both personally and professionally... 

barry smith and fiona dempster... 

we found each other and then headed off to the rubin museum where we saw beautiful & meaningful work... 

a yellow tara

lotus blossoms

phoenix and dragons

we learned how to decipher complex paintings - their organization, iconography, composition and structure... thank goodness for the efforts made on the part of the rubin with that - i felt my eyes glazing over a bit... 

we learned where shrek came from -

we found funny signs -

we 'were'... 

what barry and fiona probably don't know is what it meant for me... this was my first venture out into the world after quite some time... 

i was almost dumbstruck by the ease with which our time together felt... surely, blogging provides an initial filter... one knows the others interests, thoughts, work (according to what is shared, of course)... but to meet two people from halfway around the world felt completely natural... 

i am doing an incredibly poor job of describing this - 

i know that... 

i want to thank them for inviting me to meet them... 

for making me feel so comfortable that i was joking with them... 

for feeling safe enough to share my opinions and thoughts without fear... 

for finding out what being free, relaxed and enjoying yourself is like again... 

for welcoming me into their world... 

those footprints will never be erased... 

i am most grateful...