Virtual Distractions

This virtual world is a funny thing. Things get said that make you wonder if the same words would be spoken face to face. People share details and forget their mothers are reading the same thing their BFF is... same thing with party pictures of the night before and that general rule of too much information.

 

Why am I sharing this? I don't know, but it's my virtual world. I guess I can.

 

I like Facebook. I really do. It keeps me in touch with my mom and dad and brother almost a thousand miles away. Yes, we use the phone, too, but sometimes (okay, all the time) it's fun to kick back in my recliner and chat with my mom online or make comments back and forth with my brother and nieces and cousins and long lost friends from my early days.

 

And I am pretty picky about my online friends. The ones that disappear or just never make their presence known, the ones the cuss and share locker room style jokes, the ones that are just plain rude and bossy; well, I tend to sort through them from time to time. I wonder if I'm the only one who does this. I look at my list of friends and think about all the pictures I share of my kids. I like to know who's looking at them.

 

Then again, there is this blog. I post pictures on here and sometimes (okay, all the time) intimate details about what goes on in my mind. Unlike Facebook, there really is very little control regarding who has access to my life... at least the part I intentionally share. I know that in addition to the United States, I have regular visitors from Poland and Malaysia, Russia and Germany, and as of today, the Netherlands. The countries that pop up always make me laugh to myself. I wonder about the people who are reading about my grandma and my brother and my pink bike.

 

Maybe they find the same distraction I find in other blogs. I've got favorites in Missouri and Connecticut, California and New Mexico, and of all places, the Middle East. All women. All different walks of life. All very entertaining and surprisingly refreshing. All reminders that we basically share the same joys, the same sorrows; the same sunshine and the same rain. I like that. It makes me feel less alone and more a part of something bigger.

 

I guess I've just been spending some time reflecting about why I started this series of writings. Like most people, I think, I just wanted to be heard. By whom? Well, I have no idea. I tend to leave things like that to the Lord. It has yet to ever work out the way I think I should. So today I was thinking about three particular entries I made last year. And it was good to remember.

 

• Remembering the beginning.
• Remembering to laugh.
• Remembering it's okay to just sit and think.

 

And yes, most of my reflecting and laughing and thinking takes place on my front porch swing. And when the sun goes down? Well, that's when I've got my feet up in the recliner (typically with the cat sprawled out over them), a cup of coffee at my side, and my laptop open waiting for my mom to leave her virtual farm and come knocking on my virtual door. It's my little slice of the virtual world.