Blog Friends and Big Creek

Big Creek Trail - GSMNP

April 7, 2011

The trail to and through BlogLand is very wide and I am so thankful to be learning that in very tangible ways.  Shortly after I began blogging, I discovered Kimberlynn who blogs at Minding My Weigh.  I enjoyed her insightful wisdom into the journey we were on and was delighted to learn that she and I lived pretty close together.  She mentioned one of her 2010 fitness goals as being a hike to Mouse Creek Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  This is one of my favorite trails and one of my favorite waterfalls.  We began emailing and determined to hike to the falls together.  That FINALLY happened last Thursday.  She has posted about our delightful day and new friendship here complete with pictures.  I couldn't do a better job, so just hop on over there and read about it.  If you aren't following her blog, I bet you'll be hooked!!  I loved our self-portraits and she didn't post one, so I will!

Sharon and Kimberlynn - this, I hope, was the first of many hikes!

And isn't it funny how the whole point was to hike to Mouse Creek Falls, yet I think she and I would both agree that the falls became a background goal compared to the overall experience of the trail and the new friendship!  But thank goodness, there WAS the goal of Mouse Creek Falls because had she never mentioned it by name, I might not have thought to email her and suggest that I'd love to be with her when she met that goal!  So just for good measure, here is a picture of the falls.  This is where we ate lunch!  Nice office, huh????

Mouse Creek Falls - GSMNP

Now about that wide trail in BlogLand!  As you might expect, Kimberlynn and I had a lengthy discussion about blogging, followers, priorities, time management, blogging goals, etc.  I love the parallels I have discovered between my friends in BlogLand and my friends in RealWorld!  I love the different styles of writing, the different philosophies of the journey we are own, the ways in which we each deal with adversity and the give and take with which we treat each other even when we might disagree.  I love how you come after me when I don't post for awhile and I hope I've established the atmosphere on my blog that it's o.k. to present alternate ideas and to always comment from the heart.  

The trail to my blog is VERY, VERY wide and there is room for everyone.  Meeting, biking and hiking with Tish of Incremental Improvements last fall was one of the highlights of my year and getting to know Kimberlynn only served to reinforce the fact that I want to live in BlogLand in a healthy way, use the things I learn in BlogLand to make me a better and healthier person/friend/wife/daughter/sister/etc. in RealWorld.  With my intense spirit of wanderlust and the joy I've discovered in blogging, I've got a list of BlogFriends I want to meet that's growing longer by the moment and now includes all of you!  How exciting that my time with Tish was so different from my time with Kimberlynn, yet both were perfect in every way.  I'm only 55!  Do you think I have time to meet all of you and let you show me how beautiful you really are and introduce me to your state?  I think I need to have had lunch and taken a walk with at least one BlogFriend in every state, every Canadian province and on every continent!    Oh and BTW, don't any of you ever DARE come to Tennessee without allowing me the privilege of showing you MY mountains and MY city!

Yes, the trail to and through BlogLand is very wide and I thank God every day for each of you and what you mean to me.  Let's continue to expand the trail together!

During our hike, I was telling Kimberlynn that one of my favorite posts I'd written was composed after a hike along the very same trail we were doing.  I promised I'd link to that post so here it is!  It is still a very meaningful post to me - hope it speaks to you!

Mr. B and I had an enjoyable adventure yesterday which I'll tell you about later, but right now, I've got a house that needs to cleaned and steps outdoors that need to be taken so it's time to move out of BlogLand into RealWorld!

What's on your agenda for today?