On Sunday, I received a Facebook message from my friend Tom that included a link for someone I might have know who recently died. I clicked on the link because I’m a dummy, but to be fair it did kind of look like something Tom would send me. Tuesday morning, when I finally opened up Facebook, I was greeted to a number of messages from people (as well as a number of text messages) of concern. So then I spent the morning securing my Facebook account and sending out messages that “no. that link is not from me.” Seriously. If you clicked that link, please go change your passwords and secure your account. The nice part of all of that was that I ended up having four different chat windows open with people I hadn’t talked to in a while. It was nice to reconnect.

I forget that sometimes.

Say what you will about the internet, but I still believe that it is a resource for good. When Chris built my first blog twenty two years ago (holy goats….I’m an old lady), he told me it was for letting our friends know what was going in our lives. By this time, we’d secured a framily but our framily members had moved to other cities and states. We all had blogs as a way to stay connected. Also, Chris saw something in me that I still struggle to really see in myself, a person with creative potential. The world of blogging had a number of benefits. First, it did make it easier to stay connected with our framily. Secondly, it introduced me a number of amazing women all across this country who blog. Some of these women, I would even call ‘friends’ even though we may have only met once in real life or not at all. Some of those women no longer blog and I miss them. Some of those women might write a new post once a year and I miss them. Some of those women have new life views that have veered radically away from my own and I don’t follow them anymore. Those who remain on my list are all women that I admire and who inspire me.

Yeah, the internet can be gross. There are some pretty awful people out there who really get off from spreading their hatefulness and misinformation. But I think there’s enough of us out there who are committed to sharing truths, light and goodness that we can drown out the voices of those awful people. Which reminds me. I need to reach out and leave more words of encouragement and support, not just for my blogging friends but for those distant friends who I haven’t spoken to in a while.

Again. IF YOU CLICKED THE LINK IN MESSENGER CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD! SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT!