reaching out

I love email. It is a great way to stay in touch with people all around the world, send random thoughts, ask quick questions, play the ABC game, discuss LOST with a group, try to make sense of life and many other things. I think email can become too easy. I spend a lot of my time in front of a computer. I am constantly checking. It doesn't take much time to read an email or send a response. I can compose an email and send it in hardly any time. But that's just it. Time. Convenience. Email gives us both. I whole-heartedly believe that email does allow us to make meaningful connections with people. But should we allow this to be our only way of connecting with others?
When I lived in Thailand, it wasn't cheap to call the United States or vice-versa. Yet my parents called me every week. And sometimes I would call them. Why? After all, we had email. Couldn't we just send a message and save the money? Not really. While phone calls still don't allow the face-to-face communication, there is still comfort in hearing the voices of people you love. Now that most people these days have cell phones, long-distance calls are inexpensive. I can call friends in Texas, Colorado, Arizona or New York- and most of those calls are numbers of several other states.
I talk to my parents fairly frequently. Sometimes I may talk to them once a week, others every day. When I was feeling sick, the first thing I did was call my mom. Being in Texas, she couldn't do anything to help me. But it was comforting to talk to her and seek advice.
I have one friend who calls me or I call her at least once or twice a week. Everyone else tends to be much more sporadic. But I like to call them. I am making the effort. Since I've made the choice to live here, I know that I miss much of their daily lives I was once a part of. Which means, there is always something to talk about. I've got my fabulous (and sometimes just ordinary) New York City stories. And they've got their stories. What happened to them that day. Or what is going on with our friends. What they had for lunch that day. Anything and everything can be discussed.
I know not everyone likes talking on the phone. Sure, there are some people, like my sister, who frequently go over their 1000+ minutes. But there are others, whose minutes just keep rolling over and adding up. Some people just aren't phone people. My dad always wraps up the phone conversation saying "Well, you know I don't really like talking on the phone..." True. But you did talk on the phone. Because it lets us connect to the people we love when we can't be with them in person. To truly hear them and understand what they are saying. It isn't always convenient. It takes time. It takes effort.
Remember E.T.? All he wanted to do was phone home. Making the effort can be so rewarding.