As I said yesterday, I recently went to visit a friend of mine in the hospital.
And even though I described my own weird insecurity/stress about it – there was something awesome about it too.
Everyone put away their phones. Nobody was half paying attention while checking emails. It was just really brilliant and beautiful to be in a room with people sitting around and doing nothing but talking to each other.
And of course, as is often wont to happen in hospital rooms, people started recounting wonderful stories of the person in the bed.
How great would it be if groups just gathered with no electronics and talked about how great each person was? We just put a bunch of love and joy and there and celebrated life.
Of course, I know this does happen sometimes. But I think it’s kind of rare… And I understand you can’t just sit around and talk about life all the time, ’cause you have to go out there and make the stories.
And even though I have a tendency to sometimes tell people a little too often how great they are (David, I’m looking at you (for one)! ;)) – I know you can’t just constantly celebrate people and tell them how wonderful they are. (I mean, you can. But if they get used to it, it may not mean as much, maybe. I understand that. (Even though, you can feel free to tell me how great I am all the time if you feel that way. Pretty sure I might never get sick of being loved. :-P))
After all, it may never get old. Becky used to do compliment time and that certainly never got old.
Aaaaaaanyway, I guess the point I’m trying to make is that even though certainly not every day or hang out time can be like a hospital visit, I do think it would be lovely if we all said a little more often how much people mean to us, and how funny they are, and how wonderful it is to be around them.
It would be nice if we turned off our electronic devices, didn’t worry about who else might be asking for our attention at the moment, and just enjoyed each other’s company.
(And, as far as hospital visits are concerned – oftentimes people get like that because they get worried that something will happen to the patient. But there’s no need to only remember how great someone is when that person’s sick. I know it’s so silly to still let this affect anything in my life, but I had a crazy rare congenital heart defect and I could’ve dropped dead at any moment with no warning. Anyone could be gone in the blink of an eye. Anyone. And I don’t mean that in some weird, morbid sense.
I don’t mean go live your life terrified of dying every second. I just mean, if you have something to tell someone, say it. If you want someone to know how much you appreciate them, tell that person. If you always let people know how you feel, you will never wish you would’ve said something.
Side story: i worked on a show with a really great guy who was always looking out for me and being kind to me. And he passed away pretty suddenly, not too long after we’d worked together. It was a bit shocking, and of course sad. But I always let him know I appreciated him. And I gave him a thank you card at the end of the show since such a seasoned, important person took such great care of a newbie.
I was able to take solace in the fact that he knew exactly how much I appreciated him.)
Anyway, I’ve gone on a big tangent. I guess all I’m trying to say is perhaps, today, think about taking the time to tell someone that you appreciate them. Think about telling someone you love them. Life goes so quickly! We might as well take time to appreciate each other (and get our heads out of our electronic devices!)
(Shuts computer. Goes to look at someone’s face.)