Lara was a few years older and light years wiser than me and I am grateful for all the things I learned from her. She taught me how softness is not the same as weakness. She taught me that it’s possible to hold your own and still be kind. And she taught me that sometimes you’ve just got to let fly when someone needs it—but never in a petty way.
Lara also taught me that if you push yourself and do your best it is never a waste, even if things don’t work out like you’d hoped. A good workout and a lesson from life are sometimes prize enough.
A little time has passed now, but I think about her every day as I cross the West Seattle Bridge, every time I see Mt. Rainier in the distance, every time I play in my garden. We used to work together landscaping and now I find her smile in the smell of the earth and plants.
The amazing thing is, even now I feel Lara’s lessons. When something is too hard or too heavy or too far I feel her presence and know that any challenge I meet is there for a reason. When fear or hesitation strikes, I feel her nudge.
With love and gratitude,
Karen Kraft
Seattle, WA
Lara Kellogg
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- The breadth of her relationship to us is far reaching, her friendships deep and long lasting. Ever in motion, she lived three lives every day, her broad smile and infectious laughter gracing each moment. She was a natural storyteller, in delivery and in experience, for they were her stories, unembellished. To summarize her would be a travesty of embarrassing proportions; even for those of us who were characters in her stories, our remembrance is but a moment of her rich life. If you live only one life each day, these stories will be a window into an existence extraordinary. Yes, if you were close, if you were acquainted, and even if you never had the opportunity, these stories will help all of us in the years to come, our years without Lara.