APR 26, 2018 – Looking forward to gathering for the crazy big moon this Sunday night, I’m thinking back to last Saturday, when a dozen friendly friends shared grilled chorizo, cerveza fría and lively conversation on our Miami Beach terrace. Only when the stragglers headed out after midnight did I discover I was missing the modern-day appendage that is my phone. With a quick group email, it was easily found; the friend who lives farthest from me (naturally!) had unknowingly tossed it into her bag and, by then, was 45 minutes away. Because I generally try to unplug some on Sundays anyway, my klepto friend and I arranged for the phone’s return first thing Monday.

What you may already know ~ and spending a day incommunicado reminded me ~ is how overly-reliant we can be on this little communication device, and what little meaningful communication it’s actually able to convey! With no possibility of checking it for emails, texts or newsfeeds that day, I was free to see more clearly how I’ve increasingly allowed my preoccupation with brief, down-to-business emails and transactional texts to replace deep and true exchanges — the loving, substantive kind that really makes life so much richer and more interesting and, by the by, helps keep us sane!

My remedy was to sit down and write a little stack of our new Friendship cards to family members and friends, including Anne Scott-Putney, the woman who’s quoted in the fun new design above. It felt great to sit and breathe, reconnect with myself and ~ by pen ~ with significant others, especially the wise ones like Anne who somehow help keep me (relatively) sane. I was reminded that there may never be enough hours in the day, but there are enough minutes to scribble warm thoughts and good wishes and pop them in the mail.

I thought of my friend Susan, who is always so good about sending Friendship cards; seeing her handwriting in my mailbox brings a smile well before I get to her signature xoxo, which inspired the new Meanings of Life design below.

Now, in closing, I should say that I have nothing against my indispensable iPhone … I tapped this story out on it, actually, and always make my “Send Cards To” lists on it as well. Hehe, and don’t you just bet that, in the coming days, on it I’ll receive lots of sweet missives that read something like, “Got your card! Love it! Love you!” And won’t that feel good, too.

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