Since you are reading this, you are online. So you most likely know what I am talking about when I praise the many friends whom I have never met in person. Women who are often as close as sisters. Women who, through the years, have been a blessing of sane-ness in a time of upheaval. Women who make me laugh and cry and feel so humbled at their friendships.
Tomorrow I will be writing the book review for my friend Sally Clarkson's new book. The official launch team blog post. It has me thinking of how important long distance online friendships can be. While I have met Sally in person, most of our friendship has been through the tapping away of keys on a keyboard or the clicking of a mouse.
I have a dear to me blog friend whom I write almost every day... back and forth... just the stuff of everyday life. But it helps make sense of my days and I believe it does the same for her. I have close to me blog friends in states far away and when one of them decided not to buy another computer when hers crashed... she still keeps in touch through (gasp) the U. S. Mail.
I have longtime friendships with many of you. Names which started out as a comment on the blog and became names that make me smile when I see them now. Women who have blessed me greatly.
I was thinking recently, how different my life would have been if I didn't have friends I have never met in person. For there are just a handful that I eventually have been able to actually meet, whether briefly or to enjoy a cup of coffee with. Those friendships are just as real to me as my friend who lives in the same town.
This idea of friends that we have never met in person is not all that new. In the great libraries of the world we have letters between such friends... sometimes taking weeks and weeks to cross a large ocean. These libraries also contain letters of friends who met for a brief season of time but continued a lifetime of friendship through their writing back and forth.
Oh, we definitely need friends who live close to us. People for whom we can call in the middle of the night in an emergency. Friends who ask us to "come for coffee" when we need to chat and visa versa. We need in person friends.
However, if anyone scoffs when you mention your dear friend for whom you have never met in person... they obviously have never had the blessing of an online friendship. God blessed friendships. God ordained friendships. Not second best as a real friend... they are a real friend.
So here is a virtual hug to my virtual (but very real) friends.
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