Becoming a Better Communicator

As a writer, my job is to communicate with readers. Communicate ideas, images, people and places. And for the past 18 years I've been doing a fairly good job of it. (I hope) But as 2008 came to a close and shouts of joy was heard around the world as we heralded in 2009, and all of the perfunctory calls were made, something hit me deep in my spirit.

I'd been for so long, especially this year, tied to social networking sites, twitters, and facebooks, and podcasts and email and texting that I'd forgone the art of real communication: picking up a phone and talking to someone live.

I'd gotten into the ugly habit that if someone was not on my buddy list, or in my social network, or autosaved in my email address book, I didn't connect with them, I didn't communicate. And on the eve of a new year, I received calls from two of my dear friends who aren't in my networks or on my buddy lists, and something inside of me shifted. I missed my friends. Deeply. I loved hearing their voices. I enjoyed the exchanges and I realized how much I'd convinced myself that I didn't like the phone, so much so that I'd neglected some of my friends.

So in 2009, I am not resolving to lose weight, save money, stop smoking or eat healthier. I resolve to be a better friend and communicator--the old fashioned way. Technology is a wonderful thing but it has made us strangers. As much as we connect with people on the other side of the world in an instant, we really are not connected at all.

This year I'm going to work hard to step out of the cyber world every now and again and in to the real world with flesh and blood people who talk on the phone, pay each other visits and ... I might even write a real letter!