Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2009. To me this photo says it all! The bond between a father and a son is special. Mattie had so many things going on with him, from cancer treatment to feeling physically and emotionally fragile. Yet I watched him crawl on top of Peter for comfort, which  spoke volumes about their connection. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 25,565,874
• Number of people who died from the virus: 428,015

I had the opportunity to chat with a friend today who is going through all sorts of problems with her family. Her specifics are not important, but what was conveyed during our chat was my friend was feeling isolated and alone. Seems to be the common thread with COVID lock downs. Almost a year of this is truly hard on the one's mental stability. Nonetheless, in the discussion of feeling isolated and alone, came the statement.... "I have no friends." That is a loaded statement, that could mean almost anything, which is why I pushed for more clarification. 

I think we live in a world where we are led to believe that we need tons of friends to be happy! If you doubt what I am saying, take social media for example. Think about the power of that and the point is to share and connect with as many people that we know as possible. Yet would you expect your hundreds of Facebook friends to sit down with you, reach out to you, listen to you and provide support? Maybe you do, but I can assure you that would only set you up for failure. I don't want to belittle on-line connections, they are important too, but the problem with our technologically based society today is we confuse activity with strong bonds and connections. To me social media is activity! It is sharing bits and pieces of life with really any one who is listening. But because we are bombarded with constant information on-line, we never sit very long with any one message that flashes in front of our screen. We absorb content from second to second or minute to minute. Again, I am not saying that is bad. 

What I am saying is when we have important things to discuss and work through, we can't expect our entire friendship network to gather together to support us. It just doesn't typically work that way. Nor would we really want that? My friend perceives me as having many friends. Which I do, both personally and through the Foundation. Yet when I have a problem whatever I perceive that to be, there are only a few people that I would turn to. The key in life is having those handful of people. Those you can trust, who are willing to be honest, and have your best interest at heart. 

So with that in mind, when I helped my friend think about her statement about having 'no friends,' she realized that indeed this wasn't true. I think it is very easy to fall into this slump but it is important to remember that no matter who we are, we are never alone. There is always someone out there for us to connect with who is willing to listen, understand, and provide support. We can't take these gifts for granted, and I personally feel I was the recipient of such gifts EVERYDAY for over a year when Mattie was being treated for cancer. When it comes to feelings and acts of kindness, my mind is like a steel trap. I never forget, nor do I take for granted the incredible friendship network Mattie left behind for me.