When a cafe scene triggered a memory, Laurie White blogged a rare and lovely essay: Stones.

"The game club of Maryland is gathered here, and the bookish men and women at the table next to me are playing a card name whose name I can’t remember, even though I recognize it on sight. I once sat across the table from someone and learned to play it myself, wondering why I was there when it made no sense to be...

In her piece, White delves back into a thirtysomething moment that, frankly, could have been tedious to the reader. There's a man, an ocean, an attempt to capture her emotional malaise on paper -- I can't count the number of depressing fiction novels this invokes for me, not to mention inadequate paragraphs of my own journals.

White's piece, however, builds suspense as she blogs her earlier life, juxtaposing her own self-doubt and even sadness against Author Virginia Woolf's decision to commit suicide by filling her pockets with stones and lying down in a river to drown.

"I’m not sure how I went tonight from watching tables full of people having a perfectly good time playing a variety of card games whose names I can’t remember to thinking about Virginia Woolf walking into the water, or myself sitting by it, for that matter, with the wind kicked up so hard that I couldn’t hold the pages down to write what was in my troubled heart. That day was years ago and most things related to it I’ve tried mostly to forget in the ongoing reinvention of my 30s..."

This blogger wonders aloud about her decision to chew on her past, even as she evangelizes a refreshingly compassionate approach to one's past decisions and angsts:

"I’m signed on for the duration here, and although there aren’t enough storm metaphors in existence to fully express how that’s gone, or might yet go, the rocks are on the shoreline, long since removed from my pockets. There’s no room for them in there, with all the spare change and lipstick. I wish that someone had run into Virginia on her way to the river, like so many someones have run into me, and a glance or a word had pierced her resolve..."

The result is a reflective, valuable piece that is a lovely response to anyone who questions the value of blog-journaling about life. We also think it's credit to the motto of its publisher, Indie Ink, a creation of Stacy of Jurgennation.

Congratulations Laurie, you're our BlogHer of the Week!

Thanks to everyone for continuing to send in your nominated posts. Remember to nominate individual posts, not entire blogs, and keep them coming! If you want to check out all the BlogHer of the Week posts, check out the BlogHer of the Week archive.

Best,

Lisa

For Elisa, Jory and Lisa
BlogHer Co-founders