Connecting with Friends

How do you connect with friends these days? Do you call them up on the phone, text message them on your cell phone, write an old-fashioned snail mail letter or a modern e-mail? Do you go out on the web searching for old friends on Facebook? Maybe you tweet for friends? Ten years ago if you'd said you tweet for friends, people might have thought you were losing it.

The electronic age is certainly changing the way we communicate. And that's not all it's changing. We have hundreds of stations on the t.v. to flip through before we decide there's nothing worth watching instead of the three or four that used to come across the air waves. We have remotes to turn on our ceiling fans and lights. We can start our cars by pushing a button before we get halfway across the parking lot. We download music off the internet on these tiny electronic gizmos and carry hundreds of i-tunes around with us without the bother of CDs. We take pictures with our phones no less and post them on the internet. We even download books onto these electronic book readers. Well, I don't, but a lot of people do. Personally I want the feel of that book in my hands. I want to turn pages. But even those people who agree with me about that say the Kindles are very travel friendly and easier than carrying around a pile of books.

So there's is no doubt the way we communicate and share our lives with friends and family is changing. I do a lot of historical research and when I read about the pioneers setting out on the Wilderness Trail to Kentucky I can easily imagine how hard it must have been to leave behind all that was familiar and loved. They couldn't call back home and check on Mom and Dad. When they left, they knew they probably would never see their family back in the east ever again. There must have been a lot of tears on those trails. And now we can't even seem to go to the grocery store without calling home on our cell phones.

Another way to connect these days is through Facebook. I've been facebooking (is Webster going to decide that's a word?) for a few weeks now. It's been fun connecting with family members I don't see very often and getting a glimpse into their lives. I've gotten reacquainted with old friends I'd lost contact with as well as made connections with new friends I only know through electronic means as we share reading and writing interests.

On a whim, my daughter jumped on the Facebook wagon after I did. She's touched base with a number of old friends from her highschool and college days even though she doesn't do the status bit. She says she likes the ease of contacting friends without having to remember everybody's e-mail addresses. And my daughter-in-law is enjoying finding friends and sharing photos of their kids.

One thing sure, we can reach out and touch somebody these days. And it's great to have so many ways to stay in contact, but I still think it's extra fun when I open the mailbox and see a letter in there. As long as it's not a bill and fact is a bunch of those are electronic these days, too. E-mails are good and I've been glad enough to get many of them, but a letter, a personal letter, that's still special.

You might be able to open your mailbox and find a couple of my autographed books in there if you send me an e-mail from my website www.annhgabhart.com or make a comment on my blog. I'm doing the drawing on my birthday in a couple of weeks. Gotta celebrate getting older. Don't plan to do much counting of the years, but I love celebrating birthdays and the gift of another year to live and learn and write. And make friends in old and new ways.

Hope you had a great Sunday reaching out and connecting with all your friends and loved ones.

Rainy Day Friends

Thanks to all of you who have sent kind words to me after I didn't win the big prize for my book, The Outsider. Reading your e-mails has been like winning lots of little prizes of friendship. And what better prizes can a person win! So thank you for being a blessing.

You know, there are so many times when we can bless the people around us just by smiling or doing a favor or speaking that encouraging word. Unfortunately there are also times when we pass up those moments, when we're cranky and ill tempered with the people we love the most. Maybe because we know they'll forgive us, and because hardly any of us can be happy and nice all the time. There's one lady at my church who comes very close. She has sweetness and kindness cornered. She's my role model. My Barnabas. You know Barnabas in the Bible. He was the one who was always ready to help somebody. To be a friend.

So here are some friendship quotes on this rainy day Wednesday when you might need a little sunshine. I hope you have a whole bouquet of friends and plenty of reason to smile.

• You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.~ Dale Carnegie
• To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed. That can make life a garden.~ Goethe
• Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?~ Abraham Lincoln
• Friends are the sunshine of life. ~ John Hay
• Friends are the angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly. - Anonymous

I almost forgot to let you know the winner of my latest book giveaway. It's Martha from Wisconsin. She won the book Hidden by Shelley Shepard Gray and chose my book, Angels at the Crossroads because that was the only book of mine she hadn't already read. That was definitely an encouraging word for me from Martha. So, Martha, if you're reading this, the books are in the mail. Hope you enjoy them.

I'll be starting a new giveaway in a few weeks. I'm planning to give away a couple of copies of my new book, The Believer, every month this summer. I'll be posting details on when to sign up in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to all of you who entered the giveaway. Wish I could send you all a book, but maybe next time it'll be your name that I draw out of the hat. Have a great rest of the week.