Today I had a chance to meet a blogging friend that I came to know several years ago through her powerful words and images. She begins and ends blogs from time to time deleting posts as she changes her creative direction, but she is always constant with a wisdom that goes well beyond her physical years.
Hay short for Hayley is mother to four daughters the eldest of which is poised and ready for her teen years … a time that most mothers worry will be their undoing. It hardly seems possible that a woman who looks as young as Hay could have had time to birth the girls who are just as darling in person as they have appeared in photographs on her blog pages in the past.
Although I am eighteen years older than Hay and technically old enough to be her mother, I always, always, learn something when we communicate online and now in person like today. Mothering a new little life to adulthood is difficult and most of us just stumble our way through much of the time trying to do the best we can with what we know.
Some women seem born to be mothers and they nurture quite naturally a larger circle than the children at home who call them mom. They pass out reassuring words and alternative possibilities like cookies and juice at a blood drive and do it in a way that seems as easy and natural as breathing. Hay is one of those who can shift your focus with her own honesty and soothe a worried mind with only a word or two.
She and her husband Roger took time today to come down to Rotorua so we could get together for a little while. I so appreciate having a chance to hug and share stories in person. I have said this before and it is still true it really is wonderful and affirming when people you get to know through blogging turn out to be just as you imagined they might be in real life.
Gifts Of The Journey 
Hi Nice to meet you Hayley. How wonderful for you both to meet .. all that way across the world.
Yes I stumbled through motherhood and now stumbling as a Nanny … but I get through.
I think is amazing Elizabeth , and I am going to go over to Hay’s blog 🙂 take care Anne
I also met Hay through blogging. There’s something wonderful about these connections; they erase the miles and create lovely bonds between people on both sides of the Pond.
I’m glad to have found you, as I share a cyber cuppa.
I see you share the love of a good photo as well. Very nice!
Wonderful that you met Hay. I felt very blessed to have met her and her amazing girls whilst she was living in Wellington. I too have always admired her amazing creativity and marveled at how she does it all and be such an incredible mother too. Sounds like you had a fabulous time together.
awwww, shucks, stop that ya’ll!
Absolutely fabulous day yesterday. Perhaps we will meet on your side of the equator next time 🙂
(one can dream, right?)
i just think it’s so wonderful that you are able to meet a blogging friend there in New Zealand – it’s one of the amazing things about the blogging community to me – true friendships are formed.
Beatifully put, her dispensing “reassuring words and alternative possibilities like cookies and juice at a blood drive.” What a wonderful opportunity to meet a friend. I know how important this is!
You attract what you put out so it doesn’t surprise me that you would find such wonderful friends in the blogosphere, Elizabeth. How fun that you got to visit with Hay. I’ve met a couple of my fellow bloggers, as well, and if we lived closer I know we’d be hanging together all the time.
Maybe you’ll extend your world travels to California sometime.
I wanted to take a second to say thanks so much to everyone who left a kind comment. I wish I had time to respond to each one but the road is calling and my internet time is limited while we are traveling.
What makes me smile in addition to your thoughts is that I have met three of you in person after first meeting through blogging.
Hay in New Zealand
Kim in Paris
and Leslye ( spread your wings) in America.