Making connections

Being here in South Africa is a strange feeling.  I sit here at this point in my life and it almost feels normal.  Normal to a girl who never really traveled anywhere much before 30, and then became a world traveler visiting more places and further from home than she'd ever imagined.  Starting with a road trip to Wisconsin with a guy I hardly knew, to British Columbia for a honeymoon, to New Orleans for vacation, to the UK on a work assignment, and ultimately to where I am today, where it *almost* feels like home, but not quite.  But however far away I am from my friends and family I am fortunate in that I still have contact with them via the internet, whether I'm skyping, emailing, IMing, or googletalking.  It takes me just that much closer to home and makes it a little easier when I'm feeling far far away.
There are other people who I feel close to even though I don't really know them personally.  I follow other blogs and the glimpse into their lives is interesting and comforting in a strange way, drawing the world into an intricate, knit web of acquaintances.  I know that peeping into their lives even a little makes the world feel a little bit smaller and me not so far away.  My blog, for example, is a means of communicating with people at home and others who may not know me.  I hope they feel like they know me a little. 
I was reading the news last week and was upset to read a piece on a little dog who returned to a motel after his owner was killed in an avalanche in Montana.  The article caught my eye because the photo they had attached to the article was of the corgi, Ole.  He reminded me so much of the corgi we had and re-homed to a good friend.  Wonderful, faithful dogs those corgis are.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/01/06/dog-found-alive-four-days-after-montana-avalanche/
I didn't know the man who was killed by the avalanche, nor his wife who survived, but said a little prayer for them because I now knew it had happened.  Can you know about these events and not feel connected to these people after? Maybe it's too much to hold in your heart, every personal story you come across? I sometimes wonder about that.
Then today I was reading a blog ( http://www.minorcatastrophes.com/journal/2012/1/9/take-care.html   ) and found that the writer was a personal friend of Dave Gaillard, the man who was lost in the avalanche.  So, now that I find myself a little closer to each of them in turn, how can I not think that the knit is a little tighter around us all?  I don't know either personally, they don't know me, but by simply by putting it out in the world in their blog, or in a news article, I am now another thread linked to these stories.  And now you are as well.