Last year I read an intriguing article on the Internet. Never mind the subject, it was the way the article was written that moved me to e-mail the writer and tell her what a great job I thought she did. As an occasional writer, I know how much it can mean to get a little pat on the back, especially from a total stranger.

Sherry, the writer of the article, responded, and thus began many months of correspondence. We found we had enough in common for friendship to take root, and yet enough was different between us to make the friendship interesting and thought provoking. We have bloomed some wild looking flowers through our communication.

Not too long ago, Sher sent me her copy of The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver. It's a remarkable novel about a preacher, his wife and four daughters who go to live in the Congo (now known as Zaire) in the late 1950s. Near the end of the book, I had the idea that it might be good to send the book on, just as Sher had sent it to me, just as the main female characters of the book had spread out, moving to different lands (one as far away as the land of the spirits), each having touched the others in ways that were not always apparent. Bouncing along on the same wave of thought, Sher soon sent a message asking if I would mind "passing on the Bible" so that the book itself would travel across the country, just as we had traveled via Kingsolver's words to places in land and thought that are often obscured, tucked away, full of richly rooted shadow and improbable connections.

Sher gave me the name of who to send the book to next, and I would tell this woman -- friend to Sher, stranger to me -- who would be next in line after her to receive the book. And so the book and (by virtue of having lived with the book) all of us would move outward, stranger to friend, connected in ways we never would have guessed.

It is actually quite extraordinary when you think about it -- how we are all connected, even to those we do not know. All it takes is to be touched by something -- an article on the Net, a book, a visit to a foreign land -- and to act: writing, reading, sending, sharing, creating our own improbable connections. And so life blooms, again and again.

This issue of Alaska Wellness welcomes new Layout designer, Melissa Weiner. We would also like to thank Lynn Coffren for doing such a great job with our webpage. (If you haven't been there, please visit: www.alaskawellness.com)

It is also appropriate that this spring issue brings forth the beginnings of "Parents 'n Kids…Alaska Style." Stay tuned to watch this separate publication unfold as Parents 'n Kids goes out on its own sometime this summer. In the meantime, we are pleased to nurture the sprouts of this new magazine, the "baby" of Publisher/Editor Lindy Follett.