Virtual or real?

I want to talk a little about real life.

On Monday, I was going through some posts, and found out that Amy Wilhoite, who I have been reading about and praying for for ages, had suddenly taken a downturn, and seemed to be losing her battle with cancer. And you know, it was like the bush telegraph on the blogging neighbourhood springing into action. As I moved from post to post, people had started to realise how serious her condition had become, and posts started appearing all over the place, alerting everyone else. People who did not know about her, started reading and praying too. Women who were about to blog about random frustrations, stopped and altered their posts, saying as they did, how much this put their woes into perspective.

I watched the comment count go up and up on the Wilhoite's blog, and just sat there till very late at night here, marvelling at the people all over the world who were united in their prayers for either Amy's healing or her peaceful move towards heaven. Their support for her family, and the tears shed when the news came in Brandon's deeply moving post, has been wonderful.

We are not virtual people, even though we meet in a virtual world. We are all real. Amy was real. She had a real illness. Her pain was real. Heather is real. Kelli is real. I am real. I hurt. I cry real tears. I laugh. I feel. I am real flesh and blood. No, I don't know all of you in real life. Yes, we all have protective barriers up to keep us safe. We don't even know each others real names. Yes, we all hide so much of who we are, for reasons we feel are very necessary. But we are real.

Life is not all happy sunny people. Life can be seriously awful. I can be revolting some times. I lose my temper. I get frustrated. I lose perspective. I say things I regret. I am not always in a good mood. Just ask my kids. I fail. I get things very wrong. I am real. I get miserable, and depressed at times too. I don't want to be bouncy all the time. I am a lot more than that.

Amy was a real flesh and blood woman, just like you and me. Her husband is a real live man, who is hurting. I know just how much. Her little son is a real flesh and blood toddler. Just 21 months old. They have parents who are hurting. Family and friends. In a virtual world, people don't bleed. They don't cry real tears. And they certainly don't die.

We talk about meeting each other IRL. In real life. Well, my friends. Hello. THIS is real life. We can't restart the computer and have Amy pop up any more. It doesn't work like that. Whether I am close enough to pop in for tea, and give you a hug in person or not, I am real. Thank God.

I read somewhere that to have a successful blog, you need to blog about happy stuff. WHAT?? I don't know about you guys, but I never started out to a) be successful at this and b) spread happiness like a fairy. I started out to write about me and my life. Boring at times, desperately sad at times, unbelievably happy at others, amused at still more......... I follow no guidelines. I blog about my life. Moods and all. I say what comes naturally.

Don't expect perfection from me. It is not going to happen. And my expectation from you? Just say what you really think.... not what you think I want to hear. Be real!

And now I am going to shut up.