New Follower on Twitter

I opened up my Twitter account to find a new follower. I checked out her blog, immediately impressed. I commented on two of her posts that provoked thoughts. http://redcarpetlife.me/
I hope like some of the other Twitter friends this will grow into a friendship. I have written before about these new modern day pen pals. http://missmolliesmusings.blogspot.com/2012/03/wonderful-world.html Yes, I risk losing privacy and problems from being "Out there." I am trusting it would seem. Gullible some may say. I have to live with openness.
Still, after almost two year of blogging, I hold back so much more than when I started. Fiction provides the honesty of some stories, the hurt or the joy. In fiction the mask of protection lives. Speculation in the story to the real person intrigues the reader. I know it does me when I read a fictional account of something local.
Last night, a woman who read Summer Triangle imagined some parts in West Middlesex. Others definitely knew I had set some of it in Buhl Farm Park, but not really. The hospital scenes in my mind flowed from several different hospitals, I've either worked or visited.
I give a bit of myself, but not all. I have to guard others who are more private. Not all want their fifteen minutes of fame. In this day and age, I really do have to be more careful. I grew up in a time and town where we slept with screen doors open in the summer, no problem finding car keys because they were left in the car, and every one watched every one. The joke being parents knew what you did before you came home. Part of me has learned to hide with that upbringing.
Yet, our home welcomed every one all the time. My husband grew up with that as well, my mother-in-law still practices hospitality at eighty eight years old. I welcome the new friends over the internet, maybe more than those who can see me day to day. Yet, my face tells on me. I have to be honest in person. My co-workers know my feelings.
I look forward to knowing more about my follower from Canada. I have enjoyed my friendship with Anita Mathias in Cambridge, England. I remarked once I would love to have a cup of tea with her and she replied, "Why not dinner?" I risk something when I reach out, but I risk more by not making friends. Jesus implored His followers to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves. May I have that discernment in my social media life.