I had a brief meeting with a friend recently to drop something off and she asked if I could sit and chat for a bit. We communicate quite a bit electronically so I knew most of what was going on with her so this wasn’t one of those “tell me how you’re doing” moments. It was just a good chance to have one of those electronic discussions face-to-face.
I remember so often when I was growing up friends of my parents sitting in the living room talking. Not because they had been over for dinner or were visiting from out of town, but just to talk. It would be one of the few times the TV was off in our house; there weren’t any distractions. It just seems that this is something that rarely happens these days.
We only visited for a little while, but in retrospect I remember leaving her house with this sense of joy and peace. I say that’s in retrospect because I knew I felt different but didn’t realize I was carrying those specific feelings with me until I stopped to notice. When I did, I realized those feelings started there.
There was something vastly different about today-a different connection. There wasn’t the added layer that electronic communication requires of figuring out the tone of a message or wondering “I wonder what they meant by that”. There weren’t terse responses meant to send a message quickly but can get misinterpreted as “you’re bothering me”. Face-to-face we can hear inflection, see body language, and know that we are what is important to them in that moment because we have their undivided attention. I felt my heart connect.
My friend is warm and encouraging and that can come through in her words but shines brightly in her face and her hugs. We could have had the same conversation via text but I don’t know that my heart would have felt as full as it did. This week, being around someone was part of the good around me.
Image: RentBuzz