no egg timer

When my sisters and I were teenagers, our family had one house phone.  It had one extension phone that was in my parents bedroom.  On a very rare occasion and only with parental permission were we allowed to talk on the phone in their bedroom.  Let me recap… three teenage girls who LOVED to talk on the telephone and one shared home phone.  Actually, now that I am thinking about it, I do remember my mother talking on the phone, a couple of times a month.  My grandmother would call and my mother would chat with her for about 30 minutes.  Then once a month my mother and her girlfriend would chat for about one hour.  The girlfriend lived about an hour away.  It was a long distance telephone call and it would cost them quite a bit of money.  They would take turns calling every other month.  Mind you, both our family as well as her friend and my grandparents had enough money to make several  phone calls.  They did not.  It was a luxury and it was cheaper and still lovely to write letters and mail them for a few cents.

My sisters and I had stretched so many phone cords out of whack, it is sort of  a tangled (literally) memory.  We each would sit or lay on the floor twirling and twisting and giggling.  We twisted and swirled and tangled so much, after a bit, none of us could ever get it to completely unwind.  We had important information to cover.  What are you wearing?  What are you wearing tomorrow?  Did you see Robin’s cute shoes at school today?  How much time do you have left on the phone?  Yes, we all had time limits.  Not just my sisters and I, but all of our friends.

Rules:  We were not allowed to use the phone before 9 in the morning nor after 9 at night.  If we answered the phone, we had to use very polite manners (someone from my father’s office might try and call our home).  If we were to take a message, we had to write down their number and read it back to them.  If we did not write down a proper message we would loose our phone privileges for a week.  If my mother heard us gossiping, she would ask us to cover the mouth piece, she would say, “Ladies do not waste their phone time with gossip.”  If we called someone, we had to use correct and polite manners to ask the parents if we could speak to our friend.  We also had to identify who we were.    If not, the other parent would somehow relate this to my mother and we would loose our phone privilege for more days.    We were only allowed a certain amount of time on the telephone.  When we got near the end of that time frame, my mother would put an egg timer down in front of us.  She was silently explaining, you have until the sand runs out to wrap up your “important” telephone call and end it politely.

This morning, as I came in the back door from feeding the chickens, the phone was ringing…………  “Good Morning, Wilson’s”?   Hello!  You can actually “feel” someone’s smile through the phone lines!  Today, was the first day that I got to actually speak to a fellow blogger friend.  She lives on the East Coast and I live on the West Coast.  When you read her blog, you get the feeling that she is nice and kind and silly and smart.  Hold on to your Easter bonnet, when you speak to her on the telephone, her intelligence, good soul, inspiring kindness and pure goodness bubbles up and over the phone lines.  She is the girlfriend that Hallmark writes all those “friendship” cards about.  She is uplifting and inspiring.  She has a great laugh and you can hear in her tone, just how much she values her family, faith and honors where she came from.  She is someone you want to be friends with.  Somehow,  she lifts you up and make you think you are actually good enough to be what you dream.   You instantly feel lucky that you have the privilege to call her friend.

You would really enjoy reading her blog.  You will feel like it is a marvelous use of your time.  Your life will be a bit better just because you stop by and “see” her.   She has a strong sense of goodness and grace that you will love to wiggle your toes in.  http://katherinesdaughter.com/

We talked about books and authors and chickens and children and health and changes and food and dreams. Glory bee, we even talked a little about Communism, haha! How’s that for girlfriend talk?     You can tell we were meant to be friends, because we of course, talked about the important issues in life.  What are you wearing?  What color toe nail polish do you have on?   We got to chat and giggle and talk and talk and talk.

Nope, I did not have a phone cord to twist.  I walked around a bit, even found myself meandering out onto the deck during our conversation.  It was a long chat, just the perfect amount.  No one set an egg timer in front of me.  It was pure indulgence.  You know, thinking how fun and happy it was to connect with such a smart cookie and looking forward to our next visit.  She made me bring my A game.  It was pure goodness.  My heart still feels warm and lifted up.   I feel like I was bathed in Grace.  I am still glowing.

Technology has its benefits.  More than likely, if it wasn’t for the blog world I would have never made a new friend on the East coast.   However, I gotta say, there is nothing, nothing at all like connecting and hearing a person’s belly laugh.  That good kind of deep, hearty, full of hope and happiness kind of laugh.

Have I mentioned lately what a lucky girl I am?

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  marcel proust