She Hears The Call of Duty

This is the last in my series, The Great Depression Slayers of 2010.

The seven bloggers I've highlighted in this series so far are the ones that, without exaggeration, have each helped to see me through one of the the most difficult years in my life. I  have been following their blogs for over three years, and I love these women more with every one of their posts.

It's hard to pay a very personal tribute to the very public figure I'm writing about today. I am inspired and grateful to this woman. She is fascinating, complex, and a master of the unexpected.  She writes simply, and universally, of parenthood, marriage, friendship, challenging moments, growing older, and the essence that life is.

I began following Marinka, of the extremely popular Motherhood in NYC, soon after I got online on a snowy morning in 2009.  Back then, I followed a wonderfully funny blogger, Queen of ShakeShake, who is sadly no longer writing. I would see Marinka's clever comments at Queenie's site, and decided to follow her home, hoping she had a blog. She did! The first post I read on Marinka's site was this one, and I laughed out loud. Even slapped my thigh. It felt so good to laugh to the point of tears at a time when I thought I'd forgotten how.

Soon after, she was chosen as the 2010 BlogHer Community Keynote Speaker for Humor. Humor writers are my soft spot -- to write humor is an act of hope and optimism. I see it as an affirmation of the desire of these writers to make people laugh, make them happy, to leave readers smiling as they float through a post. Marinka's writing is realistic, wise, and very funny, it's hard not to be swept off your feet on any visit to Motherhood in NYC -- every post is a good post.

Since 2009, I have turned to her site for comfort in laughter; she has become my friend and is part of my life.

My morning click over to her site has become automatic. Whether it's real life drama and the angst of our children growing up, a humorous look at growing older, or being moved by the story of her husband replacing his wedding ring after he's lost it, she is now in the fabric of my days.

I've been so very fortunate in my blogging life to have some good things happen to me, but one of the early can't-believe-this-is-my-life moments came in the way of an email from Marinka. Aside from my eyes bugging out of my head at seeing *Marinka* in my inbox, I was bowled over by an invitation from her asking me to guest post on her site. There is no way to explain the surreal feeling of being asked to post on a site of one of the world's funniest bloggers. I spent two days preparing my post for her, and I explained to my children that the honor of this woman thinking I was funny enough to feature was one worth the two nights of Special K for dinner that we were having. My guest post there is here. I was as proud as anyone can imagine, and still regret not having that zazzle.com T shirt made in celebration of that momentous occasion in my life. I may still order it. 

My life is  better because I have her to share it with. Marinka gifts us with a little levity to life and I find it so beautiful that the desire of a humorist is to bring some joy into every one's day and to act on that -- somehow funny people know just how therapeutic a good laugh can be. And wanting to make people smile, what a powerful and personal ideal.

Marinka, I love you for so many reasons, and from the bottom of my grateful heart, and all the other hearts that you have made happier with your astounding talent of writing, I say thank you. I can't put into words what knowing you has done to my days here on this planet. What I want you to find here today is an attempt to express my emotion in the joy that I know many, many others share and have found, through your site. You have brought laughter into our lives.

Thank you for the love and support you've given to so many of us during the good times, and especially the more difficult times. It's made the biggest of differences to each of us.

Marinka, Motherhood in NYC

 

We are friends because of the laughs we spend, and the tears we save.  -- A Poem of Friendship, Nikki Giovanni 

P.S. Why did I choose Marinka as the last featured Depression Slayer? Because all of the aforementioned bloggers in this Great Depression Slayers series stem from finding Marinka's site. They commented at Motherhood in NYC, and that's how I found them. If you want to find funny bloggers, check out the commenters on a funny blogger's site; because guess what? Funny people follow funny blogs. 


And that's why Marinka is the grand finale to this series. Thank you to all of you for listening and giving me a voice to tell my story. I love my readers.

Want to know more about Marinka? You can find her at The Mouthy Housewives (a humorous advice site that I LOVE -- they published my letter) or order her book, WANTED: CAT. I have two. 
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**This blogger was one of the handful so implicit in my making it through the winters and the seasonal depression they bring, before I began my own blog in 2010 and became a part of this incredible online community. During this month, I'll be highlighting the bloggers I call "The Great Depression Slayers of 2010." To the crucial ones I clung to before I began blogging, the ones that pulled me through, I thank you.