Friend Friday – Meet Kellynn Meeks

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On Fridays, I’m going to introduce you to my friends–one at a time.

I’m going to do this because I believe when we are introduced to someone with words from the heart, they become a part of our community. Our community grows. Our circle of care extends.

I love meeting someone, learning about their dreams or needs and feeling into whether I have something to offer. I love connecting people. I love helping others take the next right step in their lives.

So, I’m going to introduce you to people I love. And it may inspire you. You may have something to offer. You may have a message for someone I introduce. He or she may have something to offer you. I want to offer the dance of connection. I want to grow a community that is steeped in love and inclusivity and care.

Meet Kellynn!

Kellynn went to grad school with my husband, Andrew. I met her when I visited Andrew at Penn State in the fall of ’95. I’d just met Andrew the previous summer and wanted to spend as much time with him as I could.  (Yee-gods, it’s been 15 years this summer!) Kellynn and I became great friends, though, when Andrew and I moved to Los Angeles in the fall of 2000.

Kellynn is one of my Los Angeles rocks. That is, I know, whatever the hour and whatever the need, I could call her and she would be there in a heart beat. We’re both Midwesterners by birth. There’s something that happens in my body when I meet a fellow “middle of the country” friend. Though I think at heart I’m a coastal kind of gal and also a lover of big thriving cultural centers, there’s nothing like meeting someone from Minnesota and knowing that they’d understand that I grew up helping my brother collect beer cans for his collection in the farmlands of Fargo, North Dakota.

Kellynn is a Leo with a Leo moon. I tell you this, because like my friend, Meredyth (http://sherri NULL.machighway NULL.com/~heidiros/2010/friend-friday-2/), when you first meet her, you might think she’s quite serious and purposeful. She IS that….but she’s also one of the funniest, most wry people I know. She has stealth humor. I laugh out loud at most of her Facebook posts or responses to evites. She cracks me up. She is funny, funny, funny.  And somehow also, shy shy shy about being funny funny funny.

She is also SMART and a wonderful actress. And she is amazing with vocal coaching. Truly, if you need to work on your voice, your delivery, public speaking or learning a dialect, talk to Kellynn. She’s doing Lessac voice training now and will soon be certified. (But she’s done a ton of voice work throughout the last 15 years). Arthur Lessac, who is now 100 years old, has taken her on because he sees her great gift and wants to cultivate it. So, she’s getting the goods right from the source.

Kellynn is a mama. She has two beautiful girls– Janie and Ruby. We often find ourselves talking about all things CHILDREN when we’re together. It’s kind of inevitable. But we also love to talk about ways to bust into feeling more FREE and AUTHENTIC and less controlling, organized and GRUMPY. That is, Kellynn and I are both share the inner monologue, “If I plan it and organize it THOROUGHLY, life will unfold exactly as I envision it and if it doesn’t and I get sad or frustrated, I’ll just have to plan HARDER.”  Or something like that. Maybe it’s “I’m terrified to stop planning and have fun.” I’ll have to ask Kellynn how she would phrase it.

Anyway, I love Kellynn. I think sometime soon I’m going to go kidnap her and we’re going to have a girls day out without any checking in with family matters. We’ll drink some crisp white wine, take a walk along the ocean, breathe a lot and then buy summer dresses we think are fabulous.