Feel Good Friday: Kindred Spirits

Feel Good Friday: Kindred Spirits

Feel Good Friday is a regular series to give you a smile, a chuckle, or a nugget of wisdom to get your weekend off on the right foot!

Feel Good Friday: Kindred Spirits

Last week my husband arrived home from work and declared that he was really, really happy.

When I asked why, I was expecting to hear about positive feedback at the office or maybe a really great lunchtime jog.

“I’m really happy because on the drive home I saw a guy wearing business casual clothes picking mulberries from a bush next to the road.”

My look of confusion drew a further explanation.

“I felt like he was a kindred spirit!”

For this to make any sense at all, you have to understand that my husband is a fascinating cross between Henry David Thoreau and Steve Jobs. He equally enjoys being as far away from technology as possible and as intimate with it as he can be—a true lover of nature and gardening and berry-picking who simultaneously loves sitting at a computer all day designing websites for a living.

So for him to see another 9-to-5 kind of guy picking mulberries in his work clothes—as my husband has undoubtedly done many times—was quite satisfying, and in some ways reassuring.

We often feel relieved when we meet our kindred spirits, don’t we? We feel a connection that’s inherently different than the one we feel with our family members or co-workers or acquaintances. There’s somebody out there who gets it, we think.

When my son was a newborn I felt that way almost every time I met another mom with young children. She gets it.

I felt that way when I attended BlogU and met other women writers and bloggers who are all grappling with this relatively new platform for our words. They get it.

I feel it every time I read a comment from one of my blog readers who emphasizes with me, commiserates with me, or even challenges me. You get it.

There’s so much comfort in finding a kindred spirit who gets it. Be sure to find yours.

When have you met a kindred spirit? What did it feel like? 

image via lusi


20 responses to “Feel Good Friday: Kindred Spirits”

  1. I feel like I’ve met a kindred spirit every time I visit your blog! This is a great post. I imagine it would make me smile to see a man in a suit picking blueberries!

  2. My friends are my kindred spirits. I’m not shy to admit I only have a handful of true, close friends. I can be absolutely myself with them and I know they’ll always be there, as I am for them.

    • I’d also rather have a few really close friends than a thousand acquaintances. Feeling comfortable being yourself is so important for those friendships, and it’s tough to feel that way with a ton of people.

  3. I actually have a support group on FB called “Kindred Hearts” for moms of children with medical conditions – because we all truly “get each other” regardless of what the specific diagnosis are.
    There is so much in knowing that others pick berries or spend hours at doctors’ offices like you.

    • I’m sure it’s incredibly powerful and supportive to be in a group like that. Facebook is awesome for finding kindred spirits, huh?

  4. Oh my goodness I live for meeting kindred spirits. And when I do, as I’ve been lucky to over and over again in the past several years, I dig in and refuse to let them go. It’s rare, though not super rare, but incredibly special.

  5. I feel this way with my two closest friends. When we talk there is no prefacing things saying “I don’t mean to be rude, but…” or “So don’t judge me…” because we truly know there is no judgement. I can say what I really think or say something completely bitchy or snarky. And they can do the same. We are each other’s sounding boards. It feels awesome to know someone else gets me and I never need to sugarcoat.
    Because I get really tired of being politically correct and appropriate all the time. 😉

  6. Meeting a kindred spirit is like breathing a sigh of relief and the ability to just BE. That’s what it feels like to me! 🙂

  7. What a fantastic story! And I do think that BlogU was very much like that. Over and over again. It made the whole weekend so intense and memorable.

  8. I feel like I meet kindred spirits through blogging almost every week. It’s such a unique way to get to know someone, and I love find mutual truths that connect us. I agree with you about Blog U, and am still hoping we can do a follow up meeting soon!

  9. Oh, how I love this. And I just love how your husband gets this. It is a wonderful thing to feel that connection. I am loving the bloggers I am meeting. They are such a great, positive, and encouraging group of people. I love reading a post by another blogger and feeling what your husband felt watching the guy pick berries.

    And I LOVE that you blogged about this experience, Katie!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.