Can You Hear Me Now?

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It is weird really, how in a day and age where we are so totally CONNECTED, that I can feel so disconnected.

I mean sure, there is Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, LinkedIn and Google this and Google that. My cell phone with all the fancy apps are never to far away, and then of course there is the laptop and computer that can take me anywhere virtually that I want to go. I can Skype with my friend in Georgia, and even take a meeting or two over NetMeetings, and I can text message, instant message and send everyone I know a picture within seconds of whatever it is that I am doing, I can download video or even listen to a sermon in realtime….

Yet lately it just isn’t enough. Oh don’t get me wrong, I am a “hider-outer” and for the longest of time this was all working for me. I have even been quoted as saying, “I believed the internet was created just for folks like me, no personal contact – fewer chances of getting hurt.” I know.. Cynical, right?

Maybe it is all the changes that I have been going through that somehow compel me to take the leap to disconnect so that I can re-connect on a different level.

There is a special balance that one has to find, I believe, between their virtual world and their real world. It is more risky in the real world, but a risk worth taking and re-taking, I think. While many of my real friends, exist in my virtual world too, I have decided to take the summer off of the virtual connections, and spend more time in the real connections. Have more lunch dates, coffee dates, more road trips, and hand written letters. I may even make more phone calls ( which is something I really do like to do), but why not, this is an experimental summer.

First on my agenda is a road trip to see my brother who I haven’t seen in years. We were separated as children, and just struggled as young adults to stay connected, our lives just kept putting us on separate currants. Maybe have coffee with one of my best high school friends while I am at it. I have reconnected with both of them through Facebook, but have rarely taken the time to actually slow things down and sit with them, look into their eyes so that I can really see, how they are doing.

I have been running hard for a few years, not sure what I am running from and running towards, but…I have been running for sure. No one can accuse me of collecting dust.

I am excited about what this summer will bring into my life, as for the first time in a rather long time I am open to new possibilities and have less of a need to keep it all contained so that the “heat” my life tends to create doesn’t burn me again. As if, my spirit has opened up again, and new excitement is just a breath away.

But, this summer is less about new… new friends I can make, new places I can visit, new adventures and misadventures, and more about OLD.. Old friends, tried and true. Old places that have special meaning. Old adventures that taught me lessons.

My ah-ha moment came a few days ago…when I filling out an ATT survey form for a phone I had returned, and the survey asked it there was anything I would like to add…. (apparently they don’t yet know me), as I began to fill out the form I saw the words and they stopped me. I was writing about how, they in my humble opinion seem to save the best “service” for new customers, and ignore those of us that have been with them forever. My insight resonated with my very soul….had I really been guilty of that too, I thought. Of course the answer is yes..

So busy running that I can’t even make the time to do those things that I tell myself are important to do.

In this book that I am reading, the author tells us that it is never to late to write your story the way you want it read. Pretty powerful stuff, really. Most days I think I live my life as if I don’t have control over it, but I do.

When everything is said and done, when I come to the end of my dusty trail, do I want it said that I had a lot of Facebook friends, or do I want those that I love the most to know that I loved them with everything I had, and made the time to sit with them, share life with them. I guess I will choose the latter.

Social media is one of the best tools out there to build a business, but I am wondering if it is the best way to build my life.

So for my little summer project I thought I would take up using the tin can phone method, where eye to eye contact seems to be the connection line.