On my trusty blog calendar I have planned a post to talk about blogging. I plan to share why I think it is so incredible, why we wanted it for our life, and what I believe it means for the world we currently live in today with the legacy it leaves behind. Ya’ll words are powerful…..so words carefully curated with passion and love to tell the story of personal experience – those words, they are are as powerful as it comes. Then mix in the beautiful mess of memories blogs capture with a strong sense of community – and you have an amazing experience.
People have tried to capture it in films, books, I have tried to explain it to my parents – but until you really get into it, until you feel the excitement that comes from learning something new from a total stranger – or finding the courage to really chase a dream because a regular person did it and lived to tell the tale – you can’t describe it. But don’t you worry your pretty little heads – in that post to come….I will try. It will be long and mushy and you will know EXACTLY who wrote it. 🙂
This Friday night as I try to wrap up a post I have been working on all week long – my heart is drawn back to a blogging story that has captured my attention and focus. Leslie Sisti was a beautiful 30 year old mom of two little gals, wife to the man of her dreams, a true spark plug, lover of life – who was taken to Heaven on Monday, July 27. Before yesterday I had never read Leslie’s blog. But how this bloggy business works is that I follow others who do follow her and a few clicks later and I was diving into her sweet life.
Her messages were genuine, funny, insightful, happy and so faithfully positive. Through my pain and tears for her, her family, the bloggers sharing their thoughts – I laughed out loud at her stories – and of course complimented her style! Her life to the outside world had a very abrupt ending – a heart issue she did not really talk about it – so when you were on her blog you were just seeing her be her – a mom, a wife, a girly girl….this time stamp of her life, of the everyday was just exactly as her life was at this point in time.
What struck me as exceptionally beautiful was that on (what seemed like) a whim – she started her little blog as a single girl navigating the real world. This blog traveled with her through meeting her mister, wedding, and then each pregnancy and the birth of each beautiful little girl. So many blogs that I have found or follow are woman a little more established, or already down the family path who want to remember their failed attempts at learning to cook, favorite holiday decor, or how their kiddo coped with they first day of school. Leslie’s was really special because it was so different – and her voice was just so pure, so honest – her story was the full journey told, through her eyes.
My first thought of course was that I had to read her story and over the last 24 hours I have poured over the pages popping from Friday Shenanigans as a single gal over to meeting her second baby. I read about her love of Starbucks, hate for squirrel sweaters, and the way her whole world changed when she met the man who would give her a new last name. I loved her style, her writing, and felt after many a page view that I was suddenly following a new friend. Then I had my second thought…..
Her little girls – just over 6 months and 2 years old – will grow up not having her to pick out school supplies, get ready for the holidays, plan birthday parties, – yes, yes there are the matters of prom dresses, graduations, weddings – but it is also the little things. The teeny tiny things – her laugh, her love of fall crisp air – her OCD habits. If they had coffee together, what would she order? If they don’t make their bed each day, what she would say? Her favorite shades of make-up or her hair secrets (she had great hair) – what about those moments. Details that I know are encapsulated in her husband’s heart and soul…but what about the day her daughter doesn’t want to ask and just wants to know??? That day – that day they will have Leslie’s blog.
Death is never clear, it is never easy, and I have never known it to make sense. But when that day comes – you do realize what matters – and you know what? was how much she loved to put a bow on her little girl, or how much she needed her faith to give her the life she dreamt of. Her girls will know that their pure existence made this time in her life, that had an unexpected and difficult outcome, palatable. And now – as Leslie’s story travels around the inter webs – even still she inspires, she reminds all of us to live and love in such a big way – and brings comfort through her words, that she may not be here with her daughters, but her presence is forever with them – in spirit and in word.
Thank you Leslie for touching my heart, inspiring me on my little journey, providing a sense of privilege for joining you in the ranks of bloggers, and rest in peace knowing the many folks whose prayers are being lifted to your little ladies and husband.
Be Blessed Lovelies,
(in honor of Leslie)
Jackie
Have A Little Faith in We 