It's a small world after all

It’s a nice change of pace putting my "mad research skills" to use looking up the living. Hubby has commented before on all the time spent researching the dearly departed on my family tree. I thought he would be more impressed when I started finding long lost friends of his on Facebook.

I’ve found people I lost contact with over the past thirty years too; friends, schoolmates, co-workers, neighbors, and even a long lost relative.

Why do we let people slip out of our lives?

During my first marriage, stability was an issue. We moved at least a dozen times during those ten years. It was very unsettling. It’s hard to build and keep connections when you never know when you might be leaving. Also those years were before email (my favorite form of communication).
The next ten years were busy years of working and raising a family. I had moved back to my home town, but had lost contact with everyone who lived here. Also, I was not the same person as when I left, so I didn’t fit in with the gang I used to party with. Of course, they had grown up too and many probably changed the course of their lives as well.
The next section of my life were the stable years. I settled into a life where I pretty much kept to myself and spent all my time at home with Hubby. I only decided to break out of my shell a couple of years ago. Putting myself out there is still a work in progress, as I have to overcome my social anxieties.

These are really just excuses for my lack of communication.
I’ve never been a letter writer like my mother and my mother-in-law were. These ladies both kept up with the important people in their lives, even if it was at times one sided. I’m impressed by them and look to them as my role models.

With today’s technology and varying mediums, communicating is easier than ever. Heck, we are almost bombarded by information at times (TMI). The key is to make our exchanges meaningful.

Why don’t we let the people in our lives know how much they mean to us? (Maybe instead of a question, that should be a challenge.)

I ran across a photo of an old friend yesterday on Facebook. This woman has no idea how important she was in my life. I would even say that she helped save my life at one point. I hope I get the chance to tell her about it. Ironically, Hubby saved her life once too. Well, he saved her from a bad fall anyway. Small world, isn’t it?

Comments

[Nola at the Alamo]

The world just seems to get a little smaller with each technological advance. First email, now all the social networks. I can't tell you how many people I've reconnected with via Facebook. Plus, I keep up with people a lot better, knowing what's going on in their daily lives due to FB posts and Tweets on Twitter.