7:23pm on 7/23/10

I was visiting blogs recently and got very enthralled with… well, many of them. But, I perseverated on this video by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and became inspired to make a request.

Tomorrow, Friday, July 23rd, is my birthday. I’ll be… I’ll be older. Amy requested that as many people as possible text “I love you” to someone who they loved and who had made an impact on their life on her birthday. I guess I’ve always had trouble with the word love. I don’t say it often (possible not at all), unless you are one of the three children that I bore (yes, I could possibly mean that several different ways). So, my request isn’t specific to you texting “I love you” to someone. But, I think sending a text to someone you care about and letting them know that they are in your thoughts… right then, at that very moment, could bring a whole lot of joy to our sometimes over-powering worlds.

If I’m lucky enough to be the recipient of a text or two, then so be it. But make sure you send your “I’m thinking about you” or your “I care about you” text to someone who brightens your life and fills your soul… because — “nothing breaks from good wishes being thrown at it” — how cool is that?

So, on Friday 7/23 at 7:23pm send your text!

Got it?

Oh, and the rest of my request is that you come back here and let me know you did it and let me know how it made you feel. I hope sending a little care package in the form of a text will fill your heart with warm fuzzies.

See you back here later.

7:23 pm on 7/23

Thank you Caroline! #clove

UPDATE!!!

Send your text in whatever timezone you are in!!

A good feeling needs no timezone!

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In Real Life…

I’ve been thinking about friends… how we meet, how we stay in touch, how we communicate, how we fight, how we make up, how we joke, how we laugh, how we let each other know that we love. I have many connections “in real life”. Friends I’ve known for long periods of time, friends I’ve known very briefly. I was trying to process the way in which we stay in touch. Is it face to face, is it by phone, is it by email or text or Facebook or twitter?

I actually opened my twitter account when my mother was in a hospice house nearing the end of her life (hospice can be a boring place, more on that later). I didn’t understand it and never looked at it — it seemed rather confusing. About four months later, I decided to give it a try again — still, it seemed confusing. But, I looked at it at least once a week and wrote little snippets in 140 characters or less. Then I began to connect with people and laugh and share stories. I would call it friendship.

One of the arguments I’ve heard about twitter and Facebook and texting or other forms of “hands-off” communication is that possibly, the people who communicate primarily this way have an inability to form “in real life” relationships. They have barriers that remain intact due to the lack of “hands-on” contact. That possibly, they lack the ability to form lasting quality relationships. The implication here was that I too was one of those people. So, I thought that maybe this was true. Possibly I was fooling myself into believing “in real life” connections inevitably could not form unless the primary mode of communication is “hands-on”. But, then that meant that not only was I flawed, many others were flawed too.

So, I investigated. I started looking at myself and the friendships I have. And to be perfectly honest, the relationships (mind you there aren’t many but they do exist) I’ve honed on twitter or Facebook have given me a power… a confidence to speak more freely with my “hands-on” friends. I speak to my friends on twitter or Facebook far more frequently than I do my friends I don’t share this connection with. All my friends are “in real life”. The one’s I get to actually sit down to a meal with or watch a movie with aren’t anymore real than the ones I talk with by email or text or twitter or Facebook.

I have a best friend that I’ve known for 36 years. We haven’t seen each other “in real life” in almost three years. We text more often than we talk on the phone. Yet, no one would question our friendship. No one would question the validity of it due to a lack of “hands-on” time.

So, I live “in real life”. I’m not sure where else you can live. And “in real life” I have many friends that I cherish. Many friends who shine a light on me. Many friends who I can sit with on a beach somewhere  and watch the waves and talk and be together — “in real life”.

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