Driving home today I started thinking about good friends in my life that I adore, but who I haven't talked to in awhile. We've emailed, texted, and left voice mail after voice mail...but never seem to actually connect with the other. It's a new world filled with technology that helps us stay better connected than ever (ichat anyone?) yet enables us to screen calls and voice mails -- replacing them with the impersonal text responses and to the point emails.
Whatever happened to those days where we picked up the phone, even for a minute, to say hi? Or wrote a long, ink smudged letter to catch up with an old friend. For some reason, chit-chat looks better sketched in ink, than it does on the face a phone or computer screen.
It's not to say technology isn't incredible -- it certainly has a place in my heart. It's just to say that sometimes it's nice to hear a friend's voice, or open a mailbox to a handwritten, postmarked note.
My hope for the world is that we all start taking more time to reconnect, really connect, with the friends and family that matter to us. Today is the most important day we have, or will ever have. It's best not to let it pass you, or your cherished relationships, by.
My friend Meredith and I were out walking on a busy street this weekend. We walked by a woman wearing this shirt. She greeted us as we passed her on the sidewalk with a big smile and cheerful "hello". Those are the people you want walking around -- making your day. Such a simple, friendly message has the ability to create such positive energy. I'm proof. It's five days later and I'm still thinking about a stranger who I passed randomly on a city sidewalk.
