Across the Blogosphere. Across the World.

I often find myself trying to explain what blogging means to me – how it’s helped me connect with people, both here in Joburg and around the world. It’s hard to convey though. The only people who truly understand are other bloggers.

I have this blogging friend named Francis. I don’t know Francis personally; in fact, I hardly know anything about him. I know that he lives in Northern Ontario, about as far from Johannesburg as you can get. He suffers from serious health problems that keep him housebound most of the time. I know that Francis writes a blog called Niltsi’s Spirit, and I know that he is an artist. He writes stark, gut-wrenching poems and takes beautiful photographs. I know that Francis loves animals and nature, and his Wordpress username is Spiral Dreamer. Other than that, Francis is a mystery to me.

I thought about Francis as I wrote my last post, Spiraling, first because Francis is the Spiral Dreamer and second because I knew he would appreciate Spiral Aloe in the same way that I do. He left a lovely comment, and I commented back.

This morning I opened my email and found a blog post by Francis, called She said…. The post consisted of a 10-line poem. The poem is about me. Click here to read it.

I cried when I read Francis’ poem. A lot.

I don’t have a relevant photo to go with this post. But in honor of Francis, who I know loves dogs, here is a photo I took of a friend’s dog on the Melville Koppies yesterday. Hopefully the friend won’t mind.

Thanks, Francis. I hope to meet you someday…if not in this life, then definitely in the next one.