Life Time Zones

I am new to the social networking and blogging scene.  I suppose that
I just never thought that I was that kind of person, but the older I
become I have noticed that geography and time have a way of scattering
those I know and care about across time zones.

And by time zones, I do not only mean which area of the country or
even world in which we find ourselves.  There are people still here in
Franklin County that I see only in a blue moon.  I have a better
chance of winning the Pick 3 than I do of seeing these people on a
regular basis.  The sad aspect of this is that when I do run into
these people, we will both exchange pleasantries and promise to stay
in touch… and then promptly real life will set in and the contact
information will be lost among the receipts for clothing that is not
the right size or is not the correct style for my children, doctor's
appointment cards, coupons, and chewing gum wrappers only to then be
thrown away with the absolute knowledge that I will run into said
person again… soon.

But it doesn't happen because we are on different life time zones.

Our children go to different schools, we shop at different times, we
go to different churches… we simply live in the same geographical area
but our lives are do not share the same life time zone.

Maybe, just maybe, social networking sites and blogging will close
some of these distances in time and space.  I hope so because not a
single one of us knows how long we have to be on this earth.  I have
classmates that have passed away since we graduated.  Terenda Green
was pregnant with her youngest son at the same time I was pregnant
with mine.  Our daughters were friends in elementary school.  Yet we
only saw one another in passing.  And I regret not taking the time to…
not making the time to have coffee with her or to linger when our
girls played with one another.  She and I had similar complications
after our sons were born.  After much fear and prayer, I am here with
my children.  Terenda passed away about two months after her son was
born.  I feel blessed yet still guilty because I did not make time.

Clifford Whitaker died suddenly, and I only knew of it after reading
the obituaries.  And I felt guilty because I had all but forgotten
him… and the friendship he offered me in school when I was an
underclassman in band and he was a senior.

There are so many others that I cannot even begin to list them for
fear of once more forgetting someone who touched my life, even in the
most minute manner, when I was the cocky teenager instead of the
worried mother.

So, what is the point of this melancholy, rambling post?  That I am
going to try to start writing again.  That I do truly appreciate those
people that God chose to come into my life no matter for how long or
for what reason.  That even though twenty years or more have passed
since most of us were together on a daily basis, maybe this
contraption that was not even around in its present form will shrink
the geographical distances and bring us all back into the same life
time zone.