Warm Connections {Day 18}: “Now Time” & 5 Years at RE
A few weeks ago two friends came over for a morning visit. There’s just nothing like IRL (In Real Life) relationships. Fiona brought her baby, the cutest baby boy on the planet. :)
Jenny, who brought her twin daughters, hugged me several times as she was leaving, because after following RE for 4 years and recently moving to my town, we finally got to meet IRL. By the way, I was hugging her back just as hard, because it was a mutual feeling for me. I immediately fell in love with this girl, mama of 4 little ones, wife of a very busy professional, new to my town.
Here’s a little insight into what IRL is all about: Real relationships, God’s perfect plan, in real life.
I was sitting at my son’s soccer game (well, husband’s too, since he’s the varsity coach) with my Dad on one side and my friend Minor on the other. We were clearly winning against what we thought would be a very difficult Portland team (final score 7-1) and I turned to Minor and said, it’s so good to be here “IRL.”
He said, What’s IRL?
I said, In Real Life.
I told Minor (a retired Cardiologist who’s very savvy with the computer, iPhone, texting, all types of social media) … You need to know what this term means!
I went on to explain that we do so much by texting and email now, that the physical touch, hug, talking face-to-face, looking into the eyes when there is pain or joy, seeing the extra wrinkles or gray hairs, or my favorite, reaching out and holding the person’s hand sitting next to me, seems to be gone.
When I started my blog 5 years ago TODAY, my tag line was “real entertaining for real people.” Along the way I seemed to have lost the actual wording, but the evidence remains the same.
I’m really not interested in writing about entertaining unless I’m really doing it. No staged shots without the food consumed by the guests, but instead “IRL” dinner parties where life happens around the table, a quality time of talking, laughing, sharing, even crying … it’s what I call “now time.”
Warmer connections come when we meet for real, face-to-face.
Do you ever feel guilty, with all the social media taking place, that you’re not connecting with the ones you really love and miss?
If you missed previous days to 31 Days of Warm Connections …
Day 1: Secret Ingredient to Warmer Connections
Day 2: Bringing the Beauty of Autumn to Your Table
Day 3: Multi-Generational Pear Applesauce
Day 4: Canning Suncrest Peaches with a Friend
Day 5: How to Find Contentment
Day 6: Encouragement with Easy Pear Cobbler
Day 7: Bush’s Garbanzos, Chicken, and Quinoa Soup for a Sports Family
Day 8: More About Others
Day 9: Technology Versus People
Day 10: The Table Experience with Bush’s Beans
Day 11: Dreaming of Autumn Guests
Day 12: Gathering Around a Homemade Life
Day 13: Sisters in New York City
Day 14: Giving to Those in Need
Day 15: Enjoying Everyday Sounds
Day 16: Life’s Small Moments
Day 17: Well-Designed Kitchen Counter
And be sure to check out the rest of the 31 Day Participants!
This is the reason I started “Lunch Ladies” in August in my area. I put out the word on fb, and in person and regularly invite women to meet me for lunch the last Friday of every month. I pick an inexpensive place and we meet for lunch at 12:30. There is no agenda – just “fun, friends & food on Fridays.” The group is different each time but always enjoyable and so worth it.
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I live and breathe the Internet and embrace all that it has to offer, including Social Media. Professionally, I own a web company. Personally I also have a food blog. So it may see odd to know that if there is one thing I hate when I finally get to ‘IRL’ is to be bugged by texting or tweeting or otherwise engaging with cell phones. I have had friends text the entire time we’ve been on the road to an event (of course I’m driving!). My daughter will come over to watch a movie and she thinks nothing of texting nonstop while we are together (?).
There is a time and place for everything and I love the place of entertaining friends and talking, really talking, in long sentences, way more than 140 characters. It’s almost a social practice that kids are losing…so while I love technology, sometimes? Not so much.