I didn’t get any writing done over the Christmas holiday.
For whatever reasons, I was uninspired to do anything creative at all. I took only a few Christmas photos of the kids, didn’t do any writing, and only painted one room. Maybe it’s the duldrums of winter. I’ve also been a bit uninspired about adding more noise to the world of blogging.
I think part of it was me feeling lonely. I moved to my new town about a year and a half ago. My husband has lived here for over 20 years, but I’m still getting to know people. I do have two friends of my own from this town, but both of them were gone visiting family all break.
I have 44 facebook friends that live in my town. Most of them are folks that I met through my husband. All super-wonderful-great people. But I feel like I’m at the “just getting to know you” level of friendship level – not yet at the “my house is a mess and I haven’t showered yet, but come over and have coffee anyway” level. After a year-and-a-half, I would have thought that I would have some deeper friendships by now. I am painfully shy, but once I feel comfortable, I open up and let my full-blown geek out to play.
Yesterday I had a revelation.
One of my good friends recently dropped her cable, internet, and land line to save a few bucks. She was lamenting the other day at lunch that she didn’t realize how much she relied on the internet to check maps, weather, look up recipes, and check her email and facebook.
Yesterday she called me to ask for a recipe for chocolate syrup.
I can’t remember the last time I called someone to ask for a recipe, or that someone called me to ask for help. I cannot recall the last time I called to ask for directions, or to borrow something from a friend.
The internet is a wonder. I love it, I spend a lot of time frittering my life away on it.
This is the first time period in my life in which I am trying to create friendships and Facebook is a huge part of everyone’s life.
But what are we giving up in exchange? Are we giving up the opportunity to interact and share in a more meaningful way by having the world’s information at our fingertips?
I am grateful that my friend called yesterday.
It reminded me that the best friendships develop face-to-face, not facebook-to-facebook.
And that recipe:
1/2 c. cocoa power
1 c. sugar
1 c. water
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt
combine cocoa, sugar, salt in a saucepan. Add water and mix until smooth. Boil for one minute, but don’t overboil. Take it off the heat, when it cools add vanilla.
We’ve made lots of variations in my house including: marachino cherry juice and almond extract; or cinnamon and nutmeg
Thank you, and the chocolate was a real hit!