Things I’m Loving – Friendships of long ago connected via warp speed

Facebook – love it or hate it – has changed the way we communicate more than any of my childhood friends and I could have ever anticipated. I was always a letter writer, so managed to keep in touch with many friends after leaving school and university – despite moving to live on the other side of the world. However, many friends weren’t naturally keen to write – even the arrival of e-mail didn’t move them to write – but Facebook – well, that’s been different. Sharing a simple thought in one line is so much easier for many of my friends.

Pictures in the clouds

A slice of life shared, a moment in time, a favourite book or movie, a photograph of a child’s smiling face, the sunset or a picture in the clouds. The conversation then follows – between old friends and new – sharing thoughts, advice, information, and often inspiration.

Since the arrival of Facebook I have reconnected with many childhood friends. There have been some that I’ve carried with me in my adult life in thought alone – often close – but physically distant. Facebook brought about the opportunity to take that thought and communicate with people from my youth in a way that never would have happened before.

On the flip-side I do feel slightly ‘addicted’ to checking in and touching base with friends old and new on-line – rather than perhaps living life ‘for real’ – but then – this is still real – this online communication. It’s the old telegraph messages gone into warp speed. As a mother to three young children I don’t have the opportunity to be out galavanting every night. I’m often stuck at home, whether I like it or not, buried in washing and the creative play of children.

Alice's fairy garden

Having the opportunity to ‘take five’, with a cuppa and an on-line chat, means a lot to my sense of sanity.

So, that is what I’m loving this week – above all else. I’ve reconnected with some old school friends and people I cared about, some of them dearly, in my youth. Thanks to Facebook they are part of my life again – even if not physically present – their words, pictures and voices are with me once more.

I also trust that there will come a day when the distance won’t be there anymore, that seeing those friends in real-life will be possible. All these conversations and sharing of our day to day lives won’t be wasted – but will make reconnecting and coming together in real-life all the more immediate and intense.

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Joining in with lovely Meghan, and other lovelies, with…