Truly Living

Remember the first cell phones? They were big. Real big! Remember when you waited until after 7pm to call your family and friends? Free minutes! Young folks don’t know the struggle. Oh the memories.

Cell phones have come a long way in 20+ years. They are definitely smaller. No more waiting until after 7 pm to make calls. Cell phones today are little computers. You do not even have to dial a number anymore. Just tell your phone who to call.

But in an age when our cell phones and other devices have given us almost everything within seconds to make our lives easier, have we slowly stopped living? Have you been to a restaurant, amusement park, church or family gathering lately and looked around the room? Just about everyone is on their phone. Checking emails and social media. I am guilty of it more than I care to admit. We are completely ignoring the people around us. Instead of engaging conversations, we have become obsessed with how many likes or comments our latest post received.

We have lost the art of a great conversation. Truly enjoying a beautiful moment with family and friends. We cannot put our phones down for a minute for fear of missing something important. We just have to know what our favorite celebrity had for lunch. Meanwhile, we are missing out on life. Real life. Not what we see on social media. We have lost the art of truly living.

Truly living is about spending time with loved ones. I mean actually looking them in the eye and having real conversations. Truly living is helping others. Truly living is watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset and not worrying about capturing the perfect picture, but instead embracing a beautiful moment. Truly living is visiting a friend dealing with the storms of life. Truly living is laughing with family and friends.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not saying we need to toss our cell phones or laptops in the trash. Technology definitely has its place in our lives. But I am saying it’s okay to put your devices down sometimes and have a real conversation with the person sitting next to you. To truly live. ~OC