I'm Featuring You, John Gray

I've told the story of how and why I started this blog a few times now... and January will start the third year for me.  "I'm Featuring You" is a segment where I get to shine the spotlight on my friends.  A month or so after I began this blog (Feb, '09), I started getting comments from a guy named John... and from his comments, I put two and two together that he was British. I also found out that while a spinal injury nurse, he did a stint at a Pittsburgh facility years ago.  I suppose that's how he came across my blog... with a connection to Pittsburgh.  This post will mark his 500th visit to my website... and marks the continuation of a great long-distance friendship with someone that I've never met, but has been so integral in my progress in his comments, advice and words of encouragement.

John, and his partner Chris, moved from a small English town called Sheffield (which is an official sister city to Pittsburgh) to their current location of Trelawynd, North Wales (just off the Irish Sea).  They have a quaint little cottage that they share with a gaggle of animals, including dogs and cats and every type of foul that you can imagine... turkeys, guinea fowl, chickens, quail, ducks and others I've never heard of before... for a 90+ total, all named... most after famous people (early on, before I realized that he named his birds after famous people (from his penchant for disaster and old films), one of the birds had died, and I thought it was the real person... I was in shock).  You see, along with being a part-time nurse, he is a farmer... breeding, hatching and raising all kinds of foul... and growing his own food at an allotment that he runs for his town.  His partner, Chris, has a PhD and is a reasearch fellow (like a professor) in University and travels a great deal...it's the modern-day Green Acres, of sorts.  His day starts out with walking the dogs down the country lane... then feeding the birds and collecting eggs, then heading to the post to pick up the mail and deliver some eggs and maybe get a scone from the towns-people... and finally... maybe there's a minute or so for him to catch an old movie at the theater a few towns away or keep up with his blog Going Gently (which he has been doing for years now and has over 100,000 page views from visitors in 30 countries), AND... keep up with 30+ blogs of his friends.  I have spent not quite two years getting attached to his animals, in wild anticipation every day to see whats going on in the bird yard.  His life is a testament to times past where things were simpler and hard work was something you just did and didn't complain about.

I am very fortunate that he has stumbled into my life.  He offers encouragement and support that is matched by my life-long friends and offers a perspective that is both honest and to the point... often times keeping me in check and tirelessly returning daily marking the importance of my life, as I do with his.  I admire the work that he puts into his family and into his life, and who he is as a person... caring, kind, genuine... all with an innocent humor.  I thank him for not running away... and appreciate the security I feel with him being there day after day, even some 3,500 miles away.  Perhaps some day we'll meet.