For today’s blog entry, I wanted to try and find two words that could sum up my day and I learned that it’s not really that easy to sum up an entire day in just two words. The more I thought about it, the more difficult this became. The thing is, a lot of things happened in my day and I don’t think I truly realized that until I tried to sum it up. I spent time outside in my little vegetable garden, I attended meetings, did work stuff, met some co-workers for lunch, had a nice long chat with friends, had a game night with friends and family, exercised, ate some really incredible food, read articles on a variety of topics, received a package from a friend; How can that be summed up in just two words?
For me though, one of the things about my day which has kind of been thematic is connection. I had lots of opportunities today to just connect with others and I’m truly grateful for those opportunities. I connected with some people in person, others over FaceTime, a few over Zoom, and of course there’s always social media. The important thing is that with each connection, I got to be part of someone else’s world and had the opportunity to let them be part of mine, even if ever so briefly. Regardless of whatever form it may take, connection is such an important thing to me, it’s how I learn, it’s how I share, it’s how I grow. For me, connection is often my source for inspiration and motivation.
Today, we have more options than ever before to connect with others and yet as I think about my own life, especially over this past year, I think I connect with others less often than ever before. Oh sure, I frequently have text conversations with people, and I social media a lot (can that be a verb?) and I may even call a friend from time-to-time, but today I had an opportunity to connect with two friends, in different parts of the world. We chatted for hours and it was absolutely wonderful just to catch up with each other and to learn about what has transpired in each other’s lives since we last spoke. And while it was wonderful to catch up, I feel a little bad because it truly has been a while. I mean, connecting couldn’t be easier and it’s cheaper than ever before. And yet I know I don’t connect with people, really connect, with people as often as I probably should. So that’s something I’m going to definitely work on because while we have more asynchronous ways to connect than ever before, there’s nothing quite as awesome as just having a good ol’ conversation with friends.
The Thoughts and Ramblings of Steve 
2 replies on “Connections and reflections”
One of my favorite quotes comes from our friends who live in the hundred acre wood:
“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
“Pooh!” he whispered.
“Yes, Piglet?”
“Nothing,” said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw. “I just wanted to be sure of you.”
A.A. Milne
It always resonates with me because I feel a kinship with little piglet who often feels well all sorts of things and just wants to connect. As I was reading your post I was thinking we’ve more ways to connect than ever before and yet do it far less and not nearly as well as those who came before us who may have only had one phone in their house in the kitchen and it was tethered to a cord. And yet somehow they were more connected to each other than many especially younger people can imagine these days.
For 10 years after my dear sweet mommy passed away my auntie and I talked on the phone once a day almost every day. The conversation was so much the same that I could literally recite its beginning each day word for word now. But it wasn’t so much what if anything we had to say or didn’t it was just hearing each other’s voices. You sound tired I’d say are you ok? You sound stressed or like you aren’t feeling well are you eating she’d say?
I suppose the moral of the story is like anything worth having in life whether it’s a skill just being learned, a vegetable garden which teaches one patience as it obeys its own time schedule to grow as opposed to ours the common thread is time all of these things including true meaningful connection requires time. Quick hits and fly by’s are ok kind of like junk food but if we live on them after a while we might end up paying a hefty price. And we never know how many around us not the least of which being ourselves would benefit from just being sure of someone. It does a body and soul good.
P.S.
I loved the days when wisdom could be found hiding in children’s books or in the dialogue tv shows and the like.
Take good care.
LikeLike
Wow, this is so beautifully said and I agree with all of it. Gosh, the corded telephone, that brings back memories of talking to friends for hours, or when long distance charges were a thing, just being mindful of how precious time with a friend really was. Thank you so much for commenting and sharing this.
LikeLike