The Very First One

Well, here goes nothing. This is my very first blog. Kinda surprised that I jumped on this bandwagon. I never understood the whole "blogging" thing. I have my good friend Annabelle to thank, she's the one who got me started. We'll see how well this goes and how long it lasts. I don't really have a plan in mind for my blog. I'm just gonna give my view of things thru my chocolate-covered lenses. My blog will cover everything from day to day events, to top news stories, to sports, to just random ramblings. The purpose of my blog is to inspire thought and stir up debate. I would like to be able to get you thinking about things, maybe in a way you haven't thought of it before. You are free to disagree with me, as most of you probably will, and I'm okay with that.

My first topic is friends. What is a friend? Lots of us have Facebook (fb) accounts and have a friend's list. In fact, if you are reading this first blog, you probably got to it thru fb. But what is a friend? We use the term so loosely these days. If I met you because of someone else, even if we don't regularly communicate, then on fb you would be considered a friend. For some people, the friends list is more of a networking tool than an actual list of friends. If we were truly honest, most of us would have a friends list numbering under 100 instead of in the thousands. A lot of us ignore people on our friends list, we just don't really have the time to be in contact with everyone on it. I know I have been eliminating people from my friends list simply because it was way too long and there was no way I was able to stay in contact with all those people. Now it is very possible that we have come into contact with thousands of people in our lifetime, but it doesn't neccessarily make them our friend. To be honest, if certain people on our friends list were to call us in the middle of the night for an emergency, how many of us would respond right away? And it's not because we don't like them or know them, but it's because technology has allowed us to "pretend" to be friends. Fb allows us to give that impression without having to actually reach out and make a real connection. A real friend is there in the middle of the night when you need them, there to lend support when things get tough.

I have a saying, "Life gets in the way of friendships." What I mean by that is two-fold. Firstly, we get so busy in life with work, kids, and day-to-day tasks that we forget to connect with our friends. We forget to hang out and enjoy the things we work so hard for, and to enjoy them with people that mean something to us. We don't call as often, we don't email, we don't sit and talk, it's always go, go, go. Somehow, technology has taken over. We have more gadgets and doo-dads so we can get more done, but the more we get done, the more work we take on and its a never ending cycle. Before you know it we don't have time for anything or anyone. What's the point in buying a convertible sports car to sit in my garage if I never get the time to drive it and enjoy it? We've got to stop life, even if its just for a moment, get in the sports car, put the roof down, and go for a quick cruise even if it's only around the block.

The second thing I mean by that saying is that life causes us to dilute our friendships. We get so busy, we are doing so much that we make new contacts so quickly, and we drop them into the "friend" category. Yet we don't hang out, we don't talk on a regular basis. So instead of having, say 20 friends that we regularly spend quality time with, we now have 80 friends that each get maybe 10 minutes of our time every couple of months. Is that really better than the 20 friends? Our true friends make us who we are. The experiences we share with them shape us into the person we have become.

We recently suffered a tragic loss of a loved one in our family and whenever that happens we always comfort each other and say we are going to keep in touch, we are going to visit more, call more, better time management to enjoy life, but we never do. We never get the convertible out. Loss happens, and we open the garage and look lovingly at the sports car, promising one day to get it out on the open road, but we never do. We close the garage and forget all about the convertible. Until the next time we go in there. It's time that we stop dreaming and promising and start doing. Get in that car, start it up, get it outta there and go for a cruise. We used to hold a barbeque for our friends every summer when we lived in BC. It was simple, we would invite as many people as we could. We would try to invite everyone we knew. We wouldn't give out invitations, we would just run into people and invite them. One year we had about 40 people show up. We would supply the hot dogs, hamburgers, snacks and pop, if you wanted anything else you would bring it. You brought steaks, we would bbq them for you unless you wanted to do it yourself. It was just so we could spend time with friends, create memories, laugh and enjoy each other's company. People came with their kids, and we just took the time to hang out. Sadly, we haven't done that for a few years for various reasons, but I have promised myself that this summer we are going to revive the tradition. Life isn't about running here there and everywhere like we have let it become. Its about making connections with people, creating TRUE friendships and not fb friendships. Cause when people pass away, or move away and we can't talk or visit like we used to, the only thing we have left is the memories we created. We have let life get in the way of friendships.

So I encourage everyone, get that convertible out of the garage and take it for a cruise, even if its only around the block. Get it out as often as you can. I know I'm gonna.

And that is life thru my chocolate-covered glasses. Why? Cause Da Chocolate Says...........