We received a phone call a few hours ago. It was a lovely surprised from our oldest. As you may know, she is off to fulfill a dream of hers, hopefully it will help create new ones. She is presently on the other side of planet for a year long contract in a part of the world that I understood existed intellectually. She is getting to live it fully as she gives me the opportunity to actually think about things like the time the sun rises and sets and the length of the day throughout the year.
On the phone, she sounds like she could be down the street but she is not. She finds herself in a time zone twelve hours different from ours.
Contact has been easy through internet and the use of an old cell phone that she opened to get a SIM card there; portable connections.
Her adventure will find her outside of cell phone service for certain periods. Despite that, so far she has been able to stay connected. It has been particularly important because she is not excluded from family celebrations and this week there is not one but two important celebrations for my family.
One of them is to celebrate this little one who has grown into an incredible person:
The other is to celebrate the birthday of a new family member.
If with all the distractions her great adventure has to offer, it remains important to connect and feel part of the family, you might imagine how important it is for someone who cannot be home due to illness. In their case, the loneliness and sense of exclusion is not filled with a life long dream but by worry and fear. For family and friends to remain connected is always important but sometimes we forget how we can stay connected.
INTERNET:
The internet has a lot to offer but also has some limits. Though many places offer free WiFi, it is not always available or trustworthy.
The times it is available could be magical.
Access to things like FaceTime or Skype can have you taking face to face at basically no costs.
Messages can be sent instantaneously through e-mail or as a private message through Facebook. This way the recipient opens it at his or her own convenience. Again there is no real cost to do so.
PHONE:
There are also cell phone services and landlines contracts where long distance within the country add no long distance charges. Before using a cell phone in a hospital, you must make sure the signal will not cause disturbances with any of the equipment.
I love cell phones for the texting possibilities. It is the way to contact someone without fear of disturbing them if they are busy or need rest. They read the message at their leisure and can answer with the same freedom.
Since I am not hip or knowledgeable about some readily available technology, I would be remiss to not mention conference calling which gives a small group of people a chance to talk together despite distance.
With all the technology at the tips of our fingers, connection with loved ones is no longer limited because of distance or even forced isolation because of a medical situation.
There is no time like the present to connect with someone you care for.