Blogging has brought some incredible people into my life, and one of them is my friend  Tresha (TREE-sha) Thorsen of  Thought by Thought. I’m sharing her words and photos of her here because I want all of you to know just why she is so special to me!

It all started in 2007 when she emailed me to say that she had seen the BlogHer ’07 badge on my blog and was also going to be there and would love to meet me. Despite having each other’s cell numbers, she looked for me that Thursday night, all day Friday, and all day Saturday before finally literally standing right in front of me that Saturday night. I had taken a photo of her Friday morning when everyone got up for “speed dating” without even realizing it was her!

Look, it's Tre!

Tre is a healer. She works with people to help them learn to push aside those negative, self-doubting inner voices that hold us back and learn to accept ourselves, to treat ourselves with kindness, to live thought by thought if that’s what it takes. Just being around her makes me feel like I’m okay. She radiates this peacefulness from her beautiful blue eyes. And she is 100% genuine.

BlogHer ’08 was in San Francisco, and Tre was there. I took a commuter train from the airport to a stop near the hotel, and as the train doors opened and I stepped out, I almost knocked Tre off her feet. How coincidental is that, that I just happened to be getting off the train as she just happened to be getting on the same car? She was heading to Berkeley to meet friends so she had to run, but we met up during the conference.

Since then I haven’t seen her in person, but we’ve emailed and gchatted and facebooked. In fact, what prompted me to write this post is her latest Facebook update. It seems like whenever I am having a crisis about something, Tre has a post that says exactly what I need to hear and think about. Like this one from her Facebook wall today:

Ever feel like you react to life and get overwhelmed by it? Or feel you are beat by it or like your life isn’t going how you want? What if it’s not about reacting but creating? Not being impacted by but causing an impact of your intending… Not about never getting where you wanna be but seeing you are there ( the only where) and allowing for that?

That is exactly the problem I’ve been having for a couple of weeks now. Reacting instead of creating. Holding back instead of moving ahead. Living in the past instead of focusing on now. I suspect many of us feel that way at one time or another.

The saying goes that people come into our lives for a reason. Tre came into my life and I am a better person for it, even if I don’t always remember her advice.  I strongly encourage you to visit her blog thoughtbythought.net and read the page “My Healing Practice” first. If you need help NOW, if you need someone to listen, someone to support you even if things are falling apart, please go to Tre’s blog and click the Need Help Now tab.

if I hadn’t started blogging, I would have never met Tre. And that’s why blogging is so amazing, because the day you publish your first post, you become a part of a community, if you want to be. Open yourself up to new people and new experiences.  Learn what makes your fellow bloggers unique and interesting.  Promote them, support them, and by all means, share them with your readers like I’m doing here!