Reflections on the art of storytelling and the power of community

Despite my best efforts to act like I’ve been there before, the truth is, I haven’t, so my brain is still processing the tremendous, uplifting response I’ve gotten after being Freshly Pressed for “The essay my mother wrote.”

For my family, friends and followers who haven’t seen the Freshly Pressed feature before, it is a daily portfolio of blog posts, handpicked by the WordPress editorial team to showcase great writing, interesting topics and enlightening discussion. There are half-a-million blogs in the WordPress community and millions of posts, so to be among the 5-10 posts picked on a given day is to be in rare company.

It’s kind of like having your story on the front page of a global newspaper or projected on the Jumbotron in Times Square. I am thrilled to be chosen, but it is exponentially meaningful that it was for this particular story.

I am especially grateful for the readers and bloggers who felt inspired (and continue) to share their own stories about their moms or their children or coping with loss or change. We are part of a global community, and these stories prove that we have more in common than we have differences. I will be buoyed for weeks by the positive dialogue and the heartening thoughts you’ve offered about my mom and your loved ones.

To my fellow writers who have read and commented on this post, thank you. I’m looking forward to visiting your blogs, and I will get to them all. It just might take a little while. The list is growing. The opportunity to connect with so many creative people has been an unexpected gift from this experience.

I write in the hopes of affecting others through compelling storytelling. But storytelling is a two-way street. Thanks for joining me on that road.

Five years after @JeremyPodolski‘s mother’s death, a 20-year-old letter tells the story of her love: http://t.co/vNhfInlgDJ

— Freshly Pressed (@freshly_pressed) March 25, 2014