Technology Scrolls On

Do you scroll Facebook for these funny memes? I admit, I laugh a lot at some of my friend's posts. It's one of the enjoyable things about social media.

One of my 2016 goals was "increased connections." Technology has certainly given me those! It's been a year since I created my author website and joined Facebook. I want to share a few thoughts on my favorite things about today's technology. I'll skip my not so favorite things...

I have "friends" on Facebook who knew me as a child, friends from schools, churches, and jobs over the years, and some that I've only met recently. My smart phone allows me to post, text, send, and receive photos and videos from friends and family. My email list includes people who knew me from singing with the Messengers and the Macs. Now we mostly connect through my website and social media although I send out an update once in a while. Some friends, teachers, and classmates communicate with me regularly via Facebook or my website. Special friends and family members who are scattered across the country, who I rarely see in person, keep in touch through technology, with posts and  photos of growing families and activities. These are the connections I am most grateful for in this Thanksgiving season.
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Technology can be wonderful. As my webmaster, adopted daughter Carol Nelson, says, "Technology works great, until it doesn't." I am so grateful for her and others who have helped me learn to navigate this new way to communicate, especially as an author. But I still love to go out to the mailbox and find a real newsy letter, or curl up in my chair and open a real book, or pick up my house phone and enjoy a real conversation. Best of all, I love to meet a dear friend or family member (adopted family included!) somewhere for a cup of coffee, a delicious meal, or even a few days vacation together, and catch up on each other's lives in person.

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I'm thankful for what technology allows me to accomplish today. But I hope we never lose sight of the value of what's real. I want to close with the last two stanzas from a poem written by a former high school classmate in her book, "Autumn Calls." Janet Bayless "friended" me when I first joined Facebook, and we soon discovered that we are both writers. 

Without technology, I may have never re-connected with Janet, or known she was a poet. I enjoy her daily uplifting Facebook posts, but what a blessing to open her real book, sent to me this week. The past few mornings during my Kingdom Corner time, I have been lifted up by her poems. I know they were inspired by her love for our Heavenly Father, His beautiful creation, and our mutual calling to share Him with our readers. Now, that's a real Divine Connection.

From the poem, "Splendor" by Janet Bayless
 
Squirrels scamper 'round about
as a falling acorn catches my eye.
Leaping on limbs, they're peeking out. 
I catch my breath at an azure sky.
 
Autumn sunset of gold and red;
God's whisper of love in my head,
"Here is your passion and your call,
to share the splendor with one and all."