Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A mighty strength

A wise woman of mine once said, when I was comparing my ration of joy to the most joyful person I knew, "Don't do that." It's a good lesson, one that bears remembering on many occasions.

Tracie is one of Abby and Bens' best friend. I got to know her afresh as their wedding photographer when she moved in to document the entire week. She knows no stranger. It's magical, really.

She just wrapped two weeks in the Faroes with them and is now in Denmark or Germany. The blog narrative of her visit to Copenhagen has me asking,"Why can't I be as gregarious as Tracie?" It's spectacular. She stays with people she meets on trains, gets into after-parties with the band, has a man buy her a mobile phone to stay in touch, turns a regular bar into a karaoke bar - it goes on.

Then there's her couchsurfing host, Martin. "Why can't I be a twelfth as gregarious as Tracie?" I'll close with their self-portrait.

"P.s...if you ever happen to run in to martin...don't call him 'cute little danish man'....he's trying hard to counteract his height with his manly beard and hearty laughter..." T.F.

3 comments:

Tracie Faust said...

not going to lie..i had to dictionary.com the word 'gregarious' to make sure i was catching the real theme of this blog post.

you, h. kirkbride, were my inspiration in my travels and couchsurfing...so i promise..you have something to be very proud of.

thanks so much for the kind words...really. i dont know that i'm deserving of such a compliment from a person like yourself...but your poignant nature is something i desire so badly for myself. so i guess we can call it even.

thanks again for the words... they're inspiring me to keep on keepin on, even while in crazy stray dog-infested romania...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Hannah, if I were 1/12th as gregarious as you, I would be pretty proud of myself!

Esther said...

oh hush both of you-- SO GENEROUS AND GREGARIOUS! lol, that's awesome that tracie dictionary.com'ed it! LOVE IT!

Both y'all are so inspiring!! Much love!