Late this morning, I got an e-mail from a blog reader asking me an odd question, she wondered if I was going to eat at the Bog tonight. As it happens, we did have plans to eat at the Bog with friends tonight, i asked her why she needed to know.

She said she was undone by the massacre in Las Vegas Sunday night. ” I love the photos of Kelly,” she said, “she just grounds me, she just seems so comfortable with  herself. Her smile seems so real. I want to get there, she inspires me.”

On the surface, Kelly had nothing to do with the tragedy in Las Vegas, but I knew what the reader meant. I wanted to see Kelly too, she is, in fact, grounding.

I told Kelly the story tonight, and she laughed and shrugged. She said she was flattered, but she didn’t really know why her photo would ground people. We got to talking, and I asked her why she was so comfortable being photographed.

I even had a rare drink, a Scotch on the rocks, my longtime favorite drink.

I am always grateful to Kelly for letting me do  her portrait almost every week, but it never occurred to her that she was also getting something out of it.

She said she didn’t used to be comfortable having her picture taken, but that my work with her had helped her get over that. Why?, I asked.

“Because I love my life,” she said, “I love who I am. I love my family, my husband, my daughter my friends. I am okay with who I am and what I am.”

That is a great gift, a life of meaning.

And that, I thought, is precisely why I am drawn to photographer and why so many people find meaning in her radiant smile, and her generous and compassionate persona.

This photo helped to ground me as well. I hope it does the same for others tonight.