I started the morning talking with my mother—for almost two hours. I merged my youngest sister in about thirty minutes into the conversation, too.
It was not the world’s most scintillating conversation. In fact, it focused on mundane stuff. We covered such edge-of-your-seat topics. I went on about many chicken eggs I collected that morning–a record 32!
My sister shared her enthusiasm for a Facebook Live cookie decorating event. She has somehow stumbled across a group of three friends, one Canadian and two Americans, who each decorate cookies in their own homes, live. They met at “Cookie Con”, which, my sister informed us, is very much a real thing, an international conference for all things cookie. Apparently it includes a special emphasis on making cookies particularly pretty.
That led us into a brief discussion of Valentine’s day cookie baking plans—and our other weekend plans, like house cleaning and doggie playdates.
Seriously now, aren’t you wishing you could have been in on this little chat?
But as we were laughing our way through our rather silly commentaries on various little things going on in our world, I realized that there is a larger, more important thing happening during these types of interactions.
Worse, it suddenly dawned on me that we humans need this—and that it’s missing right now. To combat COVID, we’ve urged people—particularly those of my mother’s age—that they must “stay home, stay safe.”
And, in keeping people alive, in so many cases, we’re taking away the very stuff that makes them feel a part of life.
This morning’s discussion reminded me that I don’t need to have a huge, important thing to tell my family members when I call. It’s OK if my story to share is just about Gayle, one of my favorite little Bantam chickens who greets me every morning with her unique little clucking as she hops cutely around my feet.
It’s the act of reaching out and connecting that is key.
The silver lining for me today was being reminded to connect more. Sorry, Mom, that it took me a bit to get that lesson!
