Keeping in Touch

As I was on my laptop the other day playing Candy Crush, the TV on in the background, daughter upstairs in bed asleep, wife doing the same thing on her mobile phone, it occurred to me what a tiny insular life I was making myself live.

In this day and age of enhanced communication technology, I find myself actually communicating less than before computers and telephones were commonplace!  I used to spend hours writing a letter - 5 or 6 pages of A4 paper, both sides filled with chatter and trivia, sent via snail-mail, then await the reply - if you ever got one - weeks later.

Now, with e-mail, texts, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and websites at my disposal, I find myself playing Candy Crush!  I should be keeping in touch with my friends - a quick text, a poke, a tweet, and email.  I should be writing my daughter's journal, I should be adding a  page on here, I should be writing my own journal, I should be adding a page or two to my notebook.

So, the other day I went through my email account contacts, found someone I'd not spoken to since, well, since the last family funeral, and I sent them an email.  A few days later I got a fantastic reply - and the miles between us, the months between us, shrank to nothing.

I emailed my best mate - whose life is as busy and as full and as complicated as my own and who I never see these days.  Not got a reply from him yet, but hey - small steps huh?

I have written another few pages in my daughter's journal.  I've emailed her too.

And now I'm writing this.

In this day and age of almost effortless communication, it's easy to become complacent though.  It's easy to get sidetracked away from staying in touch with our friends and family, to become distracted by Candy Crush - when one of the greatest pleasures is to get a message from someone close to you.  So, make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, fire up that email provider and scan through your contacts - find someone you've not been in touch with for a while and drop them a line.  Who knows where it might lead??

I Can't Believe it's February!!

There I was, basking in the afterglow of the Christmas/New Year fallout, and suddenly it's February!
Almost Midwinter.  Then it'll be Spring in a few weeks, closely followed by Easter, and the clocks going forward.  Whilst I'm looking forward to the new buds, spring flowers, new life and the promise of summer, I also don't want my life to rush away too fast.
I'd quite like to languish in the cold and dismal-ness of Winter, thank you.  Like a thirsty person waiting for a drink of water, I would like my time to drift by slowly, as time was intended to pass, building an expectation of what is to come. What I don't want is my time to flash by unnoticed - hurrying along so fast that before I know it, my life is over and I've missed the cool bits.