I´ve always loved Facebook. In spite of the all fear and criticism floating around the web against it, I am here because I want to be here, because I enjoy the medium. Both sets of my family are really far away and they feel closer to me when they can see my pictures, what I am up to, even though I cannot update them every single day personally ( as much as I would want to). I have around 350 people on my Facebook, the ones I know I can trust with the sharing of my personal life and who are, for the most part, happy to see me shine.
There was a time when I had over 1200 "friends" here. It didn´t feel good to be so intimate with strangers, with people who couldn´t be bothered whether it was your birthday or you got married. They probably wouldn´t even care if you died. So I did some Facebook cleansing. And it felt really liberating! To be surrounded by joy, positivity, with the warmth of people who care or at least believe in your basic goodness and appreciate you for it.
Being busy is the truth of our modern lives. Our work and professional lives consume so much of us and our time, that maintaining contact to our dear ones often suffers. I´ve noticed time and again how many people tell us they feel close to me and my husband, just by watching our lives via Facebook.
But what touched me about Facebook this morning? I sat with my coffee and just happened to casually roll down my own news feed. And all the joy of my own experiences just washed me over, like wave after wave, on a wild ecstatic sea.
Seeing the constant love of my close friends and family, seeing myself looking gorgeous in my many, pretty dresses, seeing our travels over the last years, the repeated confessions of the love of my husband from Valentine´s day to our anniversary, all the crazy, exciting food we cooked and ate, our accomplishments, the move to Paris, the little nothings of enjoying cider on an evening or just dancing in our own living room - it all felt so good!
I literally had to stop sipping my coffee and go - O my gosh! What a life I have... How rich and blessed we are to be experiencing this gift. A simple fact we forget when we get "busy" in the daily muck. We forget the greatness of our own life, of our own being. And that love and happiness of the moments is all that matters.
And what a wonder this digital archiving! I could scroll down my own page in no time and gather so much strength from my own happy memories...I could touch them, feel them and they made me smile as if they were all waiting to remind me..." Don´t forget us and don´t forget to draw your joy from us, from time to time, especially on days when you feel bla or complainy or blue, " ( we ALL do on some days!)
My husband and I have albums of our three weddings. But its hard to reach out to them each time and turn every single page with leisure, though we often do it with our friends. Most of our pictures are digitally stored on the cameras or computers and you have go to dig them out and one almost never ends up doing that. Our joyful moments then become just experiences we first talk about, then remember occasionally and then they fade away... and we are again left with a sulky feeling of boredom in our mouth... Where is the excitement? Where are we are travelling to next? What are we doing next to be happy?
If we could just look back... we would ALL swell with pride at how far we have come from where we were... and there is so much love, so much joy, so much warmth and closeness, so many blessings to count....
Facebook reminded me this morning that I am a darn lucky and loved girl! That´s how Facebook touched my heart this morning. I hope you allow it to touch yours too
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