Connected

May I just say...er rather write, that I get such a rush from receiving and reading comments. For some the computer and Internet have a stigma of being cold and not personable. I will admit I thought this also. As I dive into different a applications on the computer I am constantly surprised on how personal it can become. When you write, you share. Your thoughts, triumphs, sorrows, and knowledge are put out to the world to be read. It can be fairly daunting when you try to grasp just how many people you just sent to. When I read other postings I do feel connected. I sometimes feel that if the writer was my neighbor, what great friends we would be. To play devils advocate I could say that I should have that connection with my 'real' neighbors. I was raised in the country, so my interaction with neighbors was probably vastly different from city folk. When I struck out on my own and lived in a city I realized how close our walls were. It was eerie for me, no true privacy. Today I am only partially connected with some of my neighbors. Some of them smoke, speak a language I don't, work night shift, and have very different priorities or goals in life. I am friendly. I wave. I give veggies, fruit, cookies and outgrown clothes to a couple of them. But I do not feel as though I could ever sit and say most of things I write to you all. The phenomenon of connection with the Internet really hit me hard when a tragedy happened to a women who posted on a forum I had recently joined. The forum is community of green mamas who share, educate, ask and answer questions openly. The women and her children were killed and the prime suspect was her husband, who had shot himself also. It was tragic, heartbreaking and is still hard to write about. I cried and I prayed for the family lost and living. I had never shaken her hand or bumped into her in the supermarket. She lived on the East coast and I am on the West coast. But we were connected. She had given answers to some of my questions. I had read her posts to other questions. I then realized the power of the Internet. It is not just a place to shop, search, and read. It is a place to be connected. I thank you for that.