The End

No, I don't mean the end of the world, or the end of an age, or the end of a calendar. I don't even mean the end of the month (though that is in a few days).

I mean the end of writing, editing, rehashing, rewording, and reshuffling. In other words, I've finished my book! As it is a compilation of tweets, mostly in rhyme, I'll use some white space to clear my head at this time.

 Sometimes it was mornings

Before I headed out the door

I'd work on a page...

maybe a little bit more.

:D

Sometimes I would hide

In the bathroom you see.

That was a place I know

No one would interrupt me.

:P

Also late at night

I would stay up instead,

Because these blessed rymes

Would dance in my head.

:D

I prayed and considered

Pleaded, begged and more.

But I had to wait for God's timing

To get it out the door.

:P

This morning it was finished

The big challenge is done.

Will I actually find time

For some more Twitter fun?

:D

I must admit, though,

I stayed up late too.

Working well past 3 am,

Outside was covered in dew.

:P

But I have just now finished;

My heart sings with glee.

The next steps to take

Don't belong to me.
:D

I have done all I can,

At this point in time.

It's heading to @SpreadingJOY

As soon as I finish this line.

:D

~ESA

Dear Diary

To save time and space, I will completely separate my two blogs. I will no longer post duplications.

For stories and things I want to share publicly, I will continue to blog here, with links to my Twitter account.

For personal thoughts on my spiritual growth and development, I will post on Bride's Blog to Beyond.

Thanks for your continued readership.

** Image: Source unknown.

Invasion!

I have been at my mother's house to help her following knee replacement surgery. I brought a small duffel bag with some clothing (frequently laundered), a hairbrush, a couple of books, and my toothbrush. 

Toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, washcloth, towel and bedding are provided by my mother. What more did I need?

Yesterday, my almost 17 year old niece arrived to help this week. Within fifteen minutes, she had invaded the bathroom with a veritable army of things she could not live without!

I am fortunate for the dual sink bathroom or my toothbrush (on the right) would have been completely lost as the invasion swept across the counter!

I thought that was all it it, until I turned around and found another contingent ready to attack the unwary who showered half-asleep! At this point, the shampoo and conditioner I used was now detained at a hidden location elsewhere in the shower. Don't even ask what the invaders did to the washcloth!

Granted, it has been many years since I was an almost 17 year old. Vague memories recall that I once carried more than a toothbrush, that I had my collection of hair care, make up, zit-be-gones, etc. Maybe I even had one or two bubble bath containers.

But I am quite thankful that those years are behind me. Over time, I learned that I don't need all that stuff.

I travel light today.

All I need day-to-day,

I carry within.

~ESA 

***Images Source: my cell phone. :D

Blogging

During my Twitter hiatus, I've been reading more blogs. Not only am I catching up on my reading, as well as spending a great deal more time OFFline, I am learning what to do and not do in my own blogs. 

Narrow columns: If I want my readers to retain information, the narrower the column the better. The best retention is found reading 4-5 words across. This is the reason most newspapers and magazines have several columns on a page.

Short paragraphs. If it's more than seven (7) sentences, my readers' eyes will glaze over. I want to target humans, not zombies.

 

Keep it short, unless  sharing a story. Even a story should be less than five (5) printed pages. It's not a book. My readers have better things to do in their life, including finding their own voice and creating beautiful memories with loved ones. :D 

Use humor, where I can. Some of the best blogs I read have a sense of humor in them. A smile shared is a blessing.

Use images. For one, they help keep the columns narrow. It's also a great way for people to find your blog. Most of my traffic is from google images.

Credit images. This is a new trend, likely in response to fights for copyright law. While I've respected requests not to use some images, I've never noted where I found the rest (usually other people's blogs :P). Credit given with the image as a caption, however, leads to confused reading in RSS feeds sent by email. The best of both worlds is credits at the bottom of the post. Unfortunately, I've an extensive collection of "unknowns."

Readability. Many people read on devices other than my laptop with a Firefox browser. The less complicated the font formatting the better. White text may look cool on a dark color background, but appears blank when sent as an RSS feed. I'd wonder at all the white space in the email. :P  And some of the older bloggers like myself find micro-fonts hard to read, but the oober-giant fonts intimidating.

ALL-CAPS. In two words: please don't.

Don't Preach. I will admit, I can be guilty of this too. There is a line between sharing what we learn and observe, and telling others how to live their lives by our measures. I find consistently preachy blogs a turnoff, even when I agree with what they are saying. Blogevangelists can rub me the wrong way; it's certainly not what I want my blog to be.

Let's see how well I follow these guidelines I've established before sunrise on this morning. And for those readers who follow regularly, you have an unlimited pass for an "I told you so!" when I break any of these. :D

Share a smile

So it lasts a while

~ESA

*** All images from the internet: unknown source.

Kingdom Visitor (Story)

Once upon a time, in a not too distant land there was a king that loved all the people. Because he had such love for the people, he wanted them to be happy and to love each other as he loved them. One day, he called before him all the magistrates in the land and commanded of them to design a way that would best enable all the people to love one another.

The magistrates gathered and spent much time in council determining the best methods to govern the people that would make them love each other so the king would be happy. They decided on a long list of rules that the people would have to memorize and adhere. They decided on celebration days that would, by their annual repetition, reinforce the rules they established. Further, they set up a system where there would be rewards for those who obeyed the rules and punishment for those who did not.
 
This, they surmised, was the best way to make the people love each other.
 
Over the years, the magistrates instructed the people in the rules, meted out the rewards and punishments, and watched the people carefully so they knew who to reward and who to punish. In response, some of the people would either vie with each other to do the most loving acts to gain the best of the rewards, or they followed the rules minimally when they knew they were being watched, lest they face the dreaded punishments.
 
Then one day, a stranger arrived and set up a temporary home among the people of this kingdom. Within a few days, one of the magistrates presented to her a thick bound volume of the rules. But the stranger handed the book back unopened and, instead, took out her visa which indicated she was not a subject of the king, and thus she was not subject to those rules. The magistrate tried to harass her, but she knew that was the law of all the lands and magistrate could not force their ways on her.
 
At that time, the king wondered how well the system his magistrates established was working. Were the people truly loving one another as he loved them? Was the system enabling their love for each other to flourish? Or were the people merely following the established set of rules because they sought individually to gain a reward or avoid a punishment? So the king decided to find out for himself. He disguised himself and went out among the people.
 
Where the magistrates were to be found, people performed all kinds of loving acts, helping one another and more. But where there were no magistrates watching, the poor were left hungry, the cold were left outside alone to fend for themselves, the sick were shoved apart from the healthy, and the outcasts were friendless. There was very little love here.
 
Then the king spied a young woman, a stranger in this land, and she was doing what the people were not, even when the magistrates were not watching. She shared her supper with someone that had none, she helped carry someone's heavy load, and she welcomed the homeless into the rooms she rented so they would not have to suffer the freezing rain and falling snow. Who was this woman?
 
The king called court the next day and called this woman before him. "I am king of this realm," he told her, "and I have seen what you have done."
 
"I know of your rules may be different here, your majesty, but as I am not one of your subjects, so your rules do not apply to me."
 
"So you do not act as you do fearing punishment?"
 
"No, sir."
 
"So you do not act as you do expecting reward?"
 
"No, sir."
 
The king's cheeks started to glisten with tears and he stepped down from his throne and faced the woman eye-to-eye. "Then why do you do the things you do?"
 
The woman shrugged, "It's just the right thing to do. We're all part of this world, we should help each other."
 
The king stepped forward and embraced the woman fiercely!
 
When he stepped back he announced, "Let this be known across the land, this woman has acted with Love for her neighbor, not because of reward, not out of fear of punishment - for she clearly does not expect either. She acted simply out of the Love found in her heart. THIS! This is what I sought for my people. All I simply ask is that they love one another."
 
Love
thy
neighbor
 
-ESA

Kingdom of God

As a counter-note to my last post, I wanted to share a response I posted on another blog. The Afterthought had shared a post titled The Big Picture, where he speaks of the steps humanity is taking to get to the Kingdom of God.

I suggest you read it, if you are so inclined, but here I want to share my understanding of the Kingdom of God will be, to the best of my ability.

- Not only is there a connection/partnership with Christ, there is one with all of humanity, past, present and future. We are reaching the end of time, per se, in that we understand that God / Christ actually exist beyond time and space, and that we (our spirits) do as well.

- We see Christ in others, as well as feel Christ within ourselves. When another is hurt or hindered, we seek not to direct our attention to the darkness of another (also within ourselves) but seek the Light and help it to shine instead.

 - We understand that all we see in others exists within ourselves. When we focus on darkness in others, we are often projecting something within ourselves that we are trying to hide. We are also not Forgiving another, as Christ has asked that we do. If we are still bearing a grudge, we are still playing the Judge. That is not our role. When we see goodness, Light, God working in and through others, our own eyes are opening too. When we reach the true Kingdom, we will see only Light and Love in others.

- We understand that we achieve far more than the sum of our individual efforts. We work together in joint harmony for the good of all. We no longer divide, segregate, list, label, or pigeon-hole. There is no yours/mine. There is no "I" but "we." We are one -- humanity.

- We understand that we are all children of God. We do not place restrictions on our brothers and sisters, that they have to do as we do, believe as we believe. We accept them as brothers and sisters, erasing the dividing lines, even when they do not yet do the same.

- We understand we can accept Christ for others. In doing so, we learn to see the Light of Christ in them, even when they do not accept it there themselves. We help that which is of God to shine in them. Positive reinforcement, rather than focus on the negative.

- We understand that God is still beyond our understanding, even within the Kingdom of God. The lines that humanity often divides itself do not apply to God, as God is outside/beyond these lines as well as outside/beyond space and time. Such lines include male/female, among many others...

- We understand that God is beyond/outside all of Creation (even far-flung universes), and at the same time exists within every breath we take, and dwells within the space between electrons in every atom. Thus, God is, indeed, within every fiber of our being.

- As we come to understand that both God and ourselves are beyond time, our perception will begin to change. The past is truly no more, as is the future. All that exists - as has always existed - is the present moment ("now"). We understand that God exists in the "now" and that is where we truly meet. To hold on to the past, we fail to Forgive. To hold on to the future (including our plans) we fail to have Trust/Faith.

And the biggest and most profound component of the Kingdom of God... 

- We no longer see the past nor the future in the person before us. There is nothing to forgive, as there is no past. There is nothing to push them toward, as there is no future. There is "now" only, as there has always been. We cannot change the past. We cannot directly affect the future except by our actions in the "now". God is in the "now," and guides us toward what we will be through the present moment in our hands. So we take our sibling's hand and join with God's thoughts and intentions, trusting our joint future to God's Will.

That is what I see as the Kingdom of God. 

What are your thoughts?

~ ESA

Bang, Bang - You're Dead

I've read, wept and prayed over the tragedy in Aurora. I've shed tears and pray each time I hear news of violence. Yesterday, the news struck closer to home, just outside the Empire State Building in New York. While I no longer live in New York and work in Manhattan, it is where my roots are.

There are many who will use this and other recent shootings as a platform for gun control. New York has the strictest gun-control laws, yet several people were shot on the street during rush hour yesterday. It has happened before in New York. I remember stepping off the commuter train at Grand Central Station and someone in the crowded mass of humanity was shot 20 feet from me, in the middle of morning rush hour.

And I still clearly remember the 5:35.

On December 7, 1993, there was a mass-shooting on the 5:35 pm train from Penn Station to Long Island. This was my regular commuter train home each night. I will not share the grizzly details of what I witnessed; the basic information is at the link.

But I know this: Guns do not kill people; people kill people. If you take away guns, there will be knives. If you take away knives, there will be box cutters and scissors. If you take away all blades... a broken glass bottle will do. I hope you see the pattern.

We fixate on the tool and never get to the root cause.

What is broken is people, and society. It is how people treat people. It is how the media fixates on horrific crimes rather than angelic acts of good will. This way, some see the horrific acts as the only way to send a message. It is often a last desperate attempt.

Is there an easy answer to fix this so there will be no more crazed killings when people are pushed too far and snap? There is no easy answer; but there is always how we treat one another and our prayers.

Following the Aurora shootings, Angelic Insights shared a beautiful post titled: Tragedy, Angels and Prayer. I encourage you to read this post, if you feel inclined, but I will share a potent part with my readers below, the prayer:

Beloved Creator,
I don’t understand. How could anyone cause so much harm?
I’ve been angry, I’ve been sad, I’ve been confused…
But I hope I would never be in that place to hate and kill so many.
Please God, help me see that it’s all a matter of degree—
Heal me, dear Lord, of all my anger, frustration, judgment,
Whatever within me is a faint echo of what would motivate a madman
To kill and injure and maim and create terror.
Heal me, dear Lord so that I can bring peace within ME to be more peace on earth,
And help me to be a healing presence to others as I heal myself.
Please send angels to comfort and heal all those in the world who are affected
In some way by what has happened,
Please send angels to help heal those who are on their way to being capable
Of such acts, so that more acts like this are averted.
I don’t claim to understand why…but I ask that you cleanse and purify and heal me…
Heal everyone who allows it—and heal our world…. Please.
Through all that is sacred and holy and within you, I give thanks. Amen. 

~ ESA

Ant and Grasshopper (Story)

Anita Ant and Gabrielle Grasshopper were cousins from the same town. Like many in small towns, they attended the same schools, worked at the same place and lived near each other. But the one major difference between these two cousins is what they did with their spare time.

Anita would often walk around the neighborhood, stopping whenever she spied a neighbor out on their front porch or yard, and would wave to them as they went past in their cars. She always had a friendly smile and an open ear for anyone she came across, friend or stranger.

Gabrielle – Gabbie to her friends – spent all her spare time in the electronic world. If she was out for a walk, she had her cell phone out and chatted with someone a great distance away. She also spent a great deal of time on the internet with people from around the world. She had many good friends online, almost more than the entire population of the small town in which they lived. 

One Monday, Anita saw Gabbie walking past her cubicle on the way to the restroom, she smiled and waved. Gabbie just walked right by obviously caught up in the conversation on her cell phone and she never saw the wave. Anita thought about this a moment and realized it had been weeks now since she actually traded more than two words with her cousin. She knew her cousin wasn’t mad at her or intentionally ignoring her, but was just caught up in her friends outside the town.

At lunch, Anita grabbed her plastic container from the pile of similar containers in the lunchroom fridge. She noted that Gabbie had yet to get her lunch. So she grabbed her cousin’s container and walked it back to her cousin’s cubicle.

Gabbie was there, chatting online with three people via IM and holding a fourth conversation with someone on her cell phone. Anita placed the container to one side of the keyboard and patiently waited for her cousin to take a break and say “hi.”

The half hour passed quickly, and Gabbie didn’t even look up. She did nab the container, pulled a plastic fork from her drawer and started to eat, however. At the end of the lunch break, Anita, sighed and hoped that this wasn’t going to be the way her cousin behaved all the time.
 

As the days passed, Anita realized that Gabbie treated all her co-workers the same way. Anita would take the time to get to know them and exchange news or stories with them during the breaks, but Gabbie was so wrapped up in people elsewhere, she had even stopped smiling and nodding greetings to her coworkers that saw her everyday.

Week by week, Anita realized this was also the case with people in the neighborhood and even when they both attended family gatherings. Gabbie was there physically but mentally she was in cyberspace or deep in conversation with someone miles away. Anita finally decided to bring this to Gabbie’s attention.
 

One Saturday morning – VERY early in the morning, she went to Gabbie’s apartment and pounded on the door. She could hear a half-asleep Gabbie fumble around inside the apartment. The door swung wide and a disheveled head stuck out. She opened her mouth but only got out a startled “What the – ” before Anita jammed the door open with her foot and shoved a hot cup of coffee into her cousin’s hand.
 

 “We really need to talk, Gabbie.”
 

Gabbie’s eyes widened in panic. “Someone died?”
 

Anita smiled. “Not quite, but close. You haven’t talked to anyone around here in almost two months now.”
 

“Whaddaya mean? I see you at work everyday?”
 

“See, yes. But we haven’t spoken in ages. You’re always on your cell phone and computer. Heck, girl, I even hear you in the bathroom stall! You really should take a moment and talk to the people around here too.”
 

“You’ve GOT to be kidding me, Anita! People around here are boring! Heck, we’ve all gone to the same school, had the same teachers, live the same lives. You and I even have the same jobs, for crying out loud! I want to connect with people from different backgrounds, different countries, different lives! The world is too wide to just keep yourself in one small town your whole life.”
 

“I agree with you there; I do go out online from time to time too. But I don’t sacrifice my life here, my contacts with those in this town. Gabbie, you didn’t even talk to anyone at Jimmy’s birthday party last weekend.”
 

“I was there, wasn’t I?”
 

“Yes, but you were on that cell phone the whole time. You even had the laptop out a good part of the day. Couldn’t you have at least stopped long enough to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ with the rest of us?”
 

“So you’re upset that I didn’t sing???”
 

“You’re not getting it at all, are you?!?” Anita’s temper flared. “I give up! I tried, but I don’t think there’s a way I could get it through your thick skull!” Anita stormed out of her cousin’s apartment.
 

Gabbie, shrugged, sipped her coffee and opened the laptop to check her email and see who was online. Even at this hour, someone in the world was awake.
 

Weeks turned to months. Gabbie and Anita’s uncle passed away and willed the duplex he owned to the two girls. Both were thrilled as their rents were rising faster than their paychecks.
 

When the day came to move, most of the company where they worked and a good part of the neighborhood showed up at Anitia’s apartment early to help her move. With the number of hands and vehicles they had, they were able to haul all her belongings over in one collective convoy and had her settled within three short hours.

As they passed the pizza boxes, beer and soda, they noticed Gabbie pulling up before the duplex. Anita looked around, no one had offered to help her cousin move. She tried to encourage a few of her closer co-workers and neighbors to go out and help, but many offered excuses such as being tired or that they had other plans for the afternoon. Some offered no excuse at all but simply refused to help.
 

After thanking everyone for their help and encouraging them to eat up the pizza, Anita went out alone to help her cousin with the first of many carloads.
 

While the two girls were wrestling a mattress onto the car’s roof for the third trip, Anita huffed, “What happened to all the friends you have? Couldn’t any of them help?”
 

Gabbie laughed and nearly slipped off the curb from where she wrestled with a rope, “Are you kidding? They’re thousands of miles away! They’re not going to come out here just to help me move!”
 

Anitia looked sadly at her cousin, “Who else is there to help you then?”
 

Gabbie froze as if the thought had taken hold a moment. Then she shrugged and replied, “Well, I have you, so I guess I can always depend on my family. Right?”
 

Thus Gabbie didn’t change her ways. The months became years.

One day on the way home from work Gabbie was talking on her cell phone and didn’t hear the nearby car out of control. The driver’s side door of Gabbie’s car was completely crushed. The phone flew from her hand, completely destroyed upon impact.
 

Gabbie woke up in the hospital. No cell phone. No laptop. 

No visitors.
 

Doctors and nurses came and went. The administrator said that both her place of work and family had been notified.
 

Hour by hour the time dragged. The little TV on the wall near the foot of her bed was definitely not as stimulating as being connected online. She was lonely – very lonely.

Hours turned around the clock once, night was over and day started again. Gabbie jumped a little when the phone rang beside her bed. Anxious to connect to someone – anyone – Gabbie answered the phone, “Hello?”
 

“Hi, Gabbie, it’s Anitia. I’m so sorry to hear about the accident. I just got the message this morning when I got into work. I’ll swing by after hours today, OK?”
 

“Is anyone else coming?”
 

“From here, no. Has anyone else from the family called?”
 

“No. Nobody since I woke up here yesterday. You’re the first.”
 

“Oh….. Well, you should see all the e-cards that are pouring into your inbox. IT had to ramp up the server.”
 

“Swell…” Gabbie replied sarcastically as she sadly looked around at the empty white walls around her bed. She could see past the curtain all the cards, balloons and flowers her roommate had.
 

“Well, I need to get back to work, I’ll see you later. Bye….”
 

“… Bye.” Tears welled up in Gabbie’s eyes. All the friends she had. Where were they? Why hadn’t anyone come yesterday? Why is Anita the only one coming today? 

Where are her family members? Her co-workers? Her friends from the neighborhood and school? The people she saw everyday?”
 

Wiping the tears from her eyes, she tugged the curtain between the beds a little to one side and smiled warmly to the stranger on the bed beside her.

“Hi, there, my name is Gabbie Grasshopper. What’s yours?”

--------------------------------------------------------------

~ESA

Memory Lane

I hope my readers let me indulge in a jaunt down memory lane. Though I swear I had that hairstyle with my "banana seat" bicycle when I was in high school, I will only scroll back to the time I was in college...

It was the late 1980's. OK - while some of you weren't even sparks in your parents eyes, some of you probably just thought, "That isn't that far back!"

That was a time before CD's, when being able to play a cassette tape in the car was a cool thing. Though it was a bit better than the first cars of my parents' generation, where they only had AM radio.

It was a time before the public access of the world-wide web (a.k.a. the internet). Computers were no longer huge machines with punch-cards and spinning reel-to-reel machinery that took over a whole room. By then, there were humble desktop computers that ran on a new language called DOS.

This was a lot better than strings of ones and zeros. I remember typing in lines of DOS code in my computer class. But I had a hidden asset; my kid brother was a genius on using those blinking boxes since he was in the 8th grade. He taught the teachers how to use the school one.

The time when we would dial up over the phone lines to "post messages" on a virtual "bulletin board" didn't arrive until well after collage. So I declined to learn more than the basic requirements of this blinking box.

It couldn't even help me type up my school reports. There were better tools for that. I had transitioned from manual to electric typewriters in high school. For those younger readers, "manual" means one without ANY use of electricity. The electric ones had no screen, but replaced the keys that would jam together if you typed too fast, with a spinning ball that could fly out if you typed too fast. For those my age and older, remember typing a page and making a mistake, where you would have to retype the WHOLE page?

I had a "high-tech" typewriter as my graduation gift before college. This would let me scroll through one whole line of type and correct it before I hit the "Return" key, which acted like today's "Enter" key and typed out that line. (Before that, for you youngsters, the "Return" key was how you got to the next line on a page. What wordwrap?) This technology saved on correction tape. If I missed a typo on the screen, though, I still had to manually scroll up with the roller on the side (not the "scroll-bar"), space over to the spot, and use the typewriter's version of "white out" to cover and re-type the error. If it was more than a few words, I would just crumple up the page and begin again...

We were well before the age of the "spell-checker" too. One would hire an English major to proofread a school report before handing it in.

Phones were another thing that changed over the years. Hands up ~ who remembers what this is? This was still on the phones at my parents' home when I was in college. My grandparents had this on their sole house phone too. But their phone number dated to an even-older technology: IVANHOE-6-3015. While we no longer needed to have an operator connect us, we did have to use the rotary phone letters to dial "IV" and the numbers. (And I bet you youngsters thought letters on the keypad had to do with texting!)

My college roommate and I had the luxury of sharing a phone (and our first regular bill). But ours was a newer technology - the push button phone! (We paid extra for "touch tone" dialing.) It was still connected to the phone jack in the wall, and the hand-held receiver was connected to the base with a long spiral cord. If I wanted a private conversation, I either called when my roommate was in class, or I hid in the closet like I did at home... until someone tripped over the phone cord and yelled at me! :P

The phone bill was different too. I paid per minute on local calls and a small fortune for long distance. But for some reason, when there was someone we loved (as boyfriend or girlfriend), we wouldn't count those minutes. We would spend an hour or more in either conversation or just listening to each other breathe in the silence. Maybe that didn't mean much to the guys, but it did to the girls. I wasn't the only one who would curl up around the receiver and shut my eyes listening...

The world keeps changing. There are generations today that will only know of what I speak from old stories and history class. Now we connect over cordless phones that work anywhere (or at least where we get a signal). We touch our loved ones over the internet, even in a virtual "face-to-face" conversation.

Is it really the same? I remember the old AT&T commercials: "Have you ever tucked your kid in from 10,000 miles away? You will!" We never did get those video-phone booths we were promised though. In fact, finding a working phone booth in the US today is a rarity. My husband is screwed if he ever has to use one; we can't afford cell phones. Mine is a company phone.

There is something my husband mentioned about today's technology that makes me think: "When a person is chatting, texting, tweeting or whatever online or on the phones, they are NOT where they are physically. Their mind -- and maybe something else -- is elsewhere."

It's sad to see a family having dinner together in a restaurant, yet all of them are using either hand-held video games or their smart phones. They don't speak to each other; they  barely notice the food they are eating. The only thing they have in common at that moment is where their bodies are.

Will we actually go to the extent of sci-fi, where our bodies are connected to some machine to keep us fed and alive and our minds are ... out there?

As I grew up, there was growing interest that started in the 1970's (maybe earlier, but I wasn't around much before 1969...). In grade school, I was assigned a science fair project on Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP). Ever since then, my ears would catch conversations about those studies. In college, there were lectures on telepathy, empathic ability, telekinesis, etc. There was curiosity about the spirit and how we could reach out and connect beyond the copper phone lines that were strung overhead everywhere.

In college, we would hug the phone close to our ear just to listen to a distant loved one breathe. There was a connection, despite the miles between. Perhaps there is a connection through the electronic world today, as well. Could our spirits have adapted to some degree that we use the technology to reach out and touch another spirit, even when we can not physically touch that person?

I am not a techo-phobe, and would likely have an iPad and smart phone if it was in my fiscal ability. The laptop I use to type this is also a company tool (with permission). But I also consider how this technology changes us.

Can I be the only one that found addictions to Twitter, FaceBook (and countless other online stuff) eating up all the time I can spare, and even more late into the night? Am I the only one that has seen online activities killing time I should be spending with family or visiting a friend who's struggling with illness?

Am I the only one that needs to unplug?

I've even been diagnosed (temporarily) with Adult-ADHD. I never had it as a kid, nor did I show any signs of it as a child, in my 20's or even 30's. Why now? Technology overload? Is that what happens when I try to keep up with all the things online? Instead of letting the doctors put me on medications that screw with my head, I sought prayer and looked for the root cause.

Unplugging helped -- significantly. It also brought me closer to my family members again. I have more time to volunteer and talk face-to-face with my neighbors and co-workers. Though I wonder if they will become jealous of my time when I go back to Twitter again...

In my life, my goal here is to find balance. I do enjoy reaching out and connecting to people worldwide. Perhaps there is a spiritual element. I've found the same "connection" when I pray for someone at a distance, as well as when I tweet back to folks online in rhyme. Perhaps it was there when I hung onto the phone and listened to a loved one breathing... just sharing that moment in time.

But I also know, too, that face-to-face connections are required. We are not spirits with minds alone. We are also spirits with bodies. While some consider the body "evil temptation," there are benevolent uses for the body too. A touch, a handshake, a hug, a kiss, ... a look when eyes meet eyes.

What do you do with your time

When you are no longer online?

~ESA