Inspiration from Strangers

So when you think you are all you have, 

Remember, your Angel is always watching over you...

Have you ever had the feeling that some people enter our lives for a reason or that they happened upon us at a time when we needed them most?

I had that very thing happen just recently. Let me start by telling you, not by choice but by necessity I now have "comment moderation" on. Most bloggers are already on board with this practice but for me I naively thought I didn't really "need it" because after all, the blogging community I've had the pleasure of knowing are all pretty upstanding people and a wonderful source of knowledge and ideas.

Unfortunately now I understand more than ever the reason's behind comment moderation after having malicious comments from spammer's left prior to me installing this feature.  

At first the down side of this feature was I honestly disliked the whole scenario of having to approve comments because it sort of takes some of the spontaneity out of blogging along with the innocent fun it should be. It makes it feel more like I have to be the "hall monitor" by having to ask for a hall-pass from anyone walking by! 

However as with all things in life there is a silver lining you just have to look for it. The upside of comment approval is it gives you the opportunity to see that someone has posted a comment when you receive an email notification. For a person like me that has little time to post and/or check for comments from months ago, its a great feature!

So the other day I received an email notice from a women by the name of Carol from Wichita, Kansas. Carol was trying to leave a comment on my blog as well as become a follower. However since Carol didn't have a blog account it was showing up as "unknown" which meant I had to find out if "unknown" was real or a "Spam-bot"...yes that is a real word...I think or maybe I just made it up :) That very day Katie Couric was discussing the evils of Cyber-space and how even if you think its a nice women you're talking to it could be something far worse, SCARY!!!!!!!! 
So needless to say I was overly cautious!

But I digress...when Carol and I finally established that she indeed was a "real person" it really made my day as she has to be one of the nicest people I've come across in a while. We exchanged a few emails about who she was, her hobbies, her family and it was like talking to a girlfriend. 
I must say from the start Carol was just a delight to "talk" to, we had oodles and oodles in common so much so that if she lived closer to me, we'd probably be good friends!

Anyway the whole reason for my prattling post is just to say this experience once again reiterates for me, there are wonderful people in the world and things aren't always as they seem...thank you Carol for reminding me of this today! 

"Be not forgetful to entertain strangers;
for thereby some have entertained angels unaware."
Hebrews 13:2

~ Author Unknown ~