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Connection, connecting, connectedness. I was a bit stumped when I started this piece because connection is quite the mystery that can present challenges to us as we move through this world. Connection is a deep mood, thought, or feeling that can lift you and bring you crashing to the ground. It can build the most amazing friendship, even marriage, but can just as easily shake you to your core.
For this girl here, it was a simple smile when I was walking across a grassy area that I wasn’t supposed to be walking on. He smiled, I smiled, but he was shaking his head, and mine was more of a smile of mischief knowing that I was wrong, and I was caught, LOL. That smile set the stage for Saturday nights on the back deck with some adult libations, cigars, and ol’ school R&B while laughing and talking. Um okay and a little making out. =) It gave way to weekend getaways, and couples trips where we’ve experienced so many new and different things that I can’t count them. Connection, connectedness, connecting…it’s what keeps us committed to each other, and our family.
However, with my friends, connectedness has an entirely different life. Over the years as I’ve met them all it always seemed like something cosmic. While we connected and practically sync with each other from worlds away, we are all very much individuals. I am the praying but logical friend who’s always there to support. However, I have boundaries because strong connections drain me. I have one who cannot make it not one week without something weird happening to her and her family…like SHIT YOU CAN’T MAKE UP. We have no idea what that’s about, even after 30 years of friendship, LMBO! I have one, who’s about four feet eight with purple hair (yes purple and it’s always purple, LOL). You see one person, and when she speaks, you get a completely different person. I have two businesswomen who ALWAYS look to up their game and their branding to set them apart from the competition.
Why do I share this, you ask? I share this because whether life goes right or wrong, our connectedness never fails. Our connections are so strong, separate, or together that we know when something is wrong with one of us. We start with a round-robin of questions because whoever is out of sync is probably blasting our connections to smithereens. We carry each other unknowingly and can always tell when something is different, be it good or bad. At times we have to ‘block’ because a mood is so overwhelming and loud that it’s debilitating. At others, all it takes is a quick, “Hey, what’s with you text?” for what can best be described as maintenance. And of late, this whole retrograde, then retrograde residual…then full moon thing has all of us wondering who will need bail money first, LMBO. Connections, connectedness, connecting…
It starts with a look, smile, head nod, or simple hello. It may even begin with a place of common interest. However, it starts, there is something that aligns people that deepens as they partake in time together. Not everyone understands, and not everyone will even notice. But those who do? It will be a link, a vibe, a melding of thoughts, ideas, and moods that are often unexplainable yet they exist. Connections, connectedness, connecting….
Featured Collage: Husband, From top right: Zulema, Lisa. From bottom left: Roz, Jeannie, LaVeeta
-Collette Jones
is a retired veteran, mother, young pretty grandma, (“Ask my husband!”), wife, and friend who manages the voices in her head by staying busy, upbeat, and “prayed up.” Follow her writing on ‘Voices from the Bleachers’ on Facebook.
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