Many of us have them. Friends that we held so dearly to and spent decades with only to have circumstances arise and one or both of you move away.
I have that… With many friends. And it makes for some very lonely moments when you have such a history with someone that you long to just plop on their couch and ask how they are and see their face….
You long for that passing in the cereal isle or the hour meet up for lunch. Where you all blurt out prayer requests that you know go nowhere then the table you are sitting at….
But your schedule remains cleared of those moments…. You have moved away and many have moved away… And your connections are getting hard to hold on to, with such a distance between you all.
This is actually more truer to someone moving FROM California to a new home state. As they are seeking to find places that are more cost effective to survive financially… having watched their state tax themselves to the point they can no longer live. They are saying goodbye to their homes and friends and weekends around the BBQ and pools with the friends they have raised their families with… And exchanging it for a new place they dream of building a new life in. With the hope of being accepted.
You never, however, recover from the loss of your dear friends. The friends that held you together in your tough times… and the friends that showed you a smile when you couldn’t figure out how to smile.. and the friends you took care of you during scary procedures …. You have history.
So when you get a text message from a friend that lives with multiple states between you, that her father is dying… and you wish you could plop on her couch.. check in on her and her son… And you can’t… This is the moment you thank Social Media.
This is when text messaging checking up on her and Facebook for progress kicks in. A far cry from actually being there… But you make it work.
And when that moment happens that you get the message that her father has passed… your heart sinks… Such a sweet man.. No longer on this earth with us…. And you know your friend is hurting.
I have been studying about community and friendship and the damage social media has done… the link to the destruction of it.. But what if it could be used to hold on to friendships and comfort them in times when we can’t physically be there?
And that is when I started praying, for God to show me how I could support my friend during her grief-recovery. I was in Salem, Oregon, running errands and stopping at Tuesday Mornings to see their paper selection… I had an idea and I wasn’t sure how it would go.. But I was willing to put myself out there and look a little crazy if it helped her smile, if even a little.
While I was in Tuesday Morning I filmed this video:
She accepted and I sent the pad of paper off in the mail… And we both got busy talking on the phone about idea’s and rules and what we could and couldn’t use… We schemed through Messenger and we both didn’t show either of us what we were creating…
Ok… We each showed 1 card to the other… But that was it…
We were off creating and truth be told… I never had more fun then when we were doing crafts together when our kids were little.
I finished my video and filmed my part… Kim finished hers and filmed her part and sent it to me to edit and slice them together….
I was amazed… Her cards were unique and totally different then mine with the exception of the weaving of the thin strips of paper… I laughed at the umbrellas.. and I loved how she used the jars… She caught the patterns of paper so much better then I did.
Here is the final challenge video:
Don’t miss the end of the video… Don’t miss when she tells you about her thoughts of it all…. This whole challenge has made me think about how we hold on to far-away friends in a totally different way… And honestly…. If I know you are a card maker… you might want to be a little scared.. because their might be a challenge coming your way.
I am sold! I am sold with the idea that technology can be used to hold us together in a good way… just as much as it can to tear us apart… So lets use it to hold us together.
Think outside the box!
The Bettencourt's 