Moments of Beauty and Inspiration

Tonight I'm sitting outside in the warm night and I realized that even in difficult times there can be moments of real beauty and inspiration.

As I sit here writing, I hear the sound of singing frogs in the distance. I hear the sound of a river not of water, but of cars. Still beautiful nevertheless. Above me in the clear dark sky I see the shadows of evergreen trees and the silver twinkling of faraway stars.

There's a difference between being lonely and being alone. Enjoying one's company and solitude in the beauty of such moments is a precious gift.


It's clear to me that the rejection by one is not the end of the world because the world is full of people. There is no excuse to be lonely. People put up barricades of judgement, fear and other excuses to keep people at bay.

As Helen Keller once said: "When one door of happiness closes, another one opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us."

Yes, even in challenging times, there are also true moments of  beauty and of happiness. Being able to share such moments with people who truly want to share with us is a special gift. I feel blessed to count in my life people who truly love and appreciate and want to share moments of happiness with me. Recently a friend of mine shared with me this beautiful view as we took a sunset drive together.

But in this moment as I sit alone writing on my computer, I share my insights and this view with whoever happens to visit my blog in the big, wide wonderful world of the web...

It's been a couple of years since I spoke to a friend who lives back east.

In the last month or two, I was thinking about her a lot. I managed to locate her phone number. I went on Google Call Phone and tried calling her. I reached a voicemail with a message spoken by a woman's voice.  I was pleased because it sounded just like her so it must still be her number.

I left a message. I didn't hear from her.

I called again and reached her voicemail again. I left another message and there was still no return call from her.

Today I called again. The phone was answered by a man. He was her son.

When I asked for his mother, he told me,"I guess you haven't heard the news."

I asked, "What news?"

"She passed away last month," he told me.

I was struck dumb for a moment. Here I had been excited by the possibility that I could reconnect with her. But the reality was that she was no longer alive. The voicemail on her phone still preserved her voice. Hearing her voice on that outgoing message was the closest I got to actually talking to her again.

I was feeling so sad. But I believe that there are reasons for most events and that there are important meaningful messages for me if I watch and listen.

Later on in the day, I saw what seemed like an important message for me.
This is a photo of what I saw.

It made me feel better to find this because it made me feel as if it was a personal message from my friend.

I also experienced feeling gratitude that I could still be in contact with her son. I gave him my contact number and suggested that he use the Google Call Phone service so he could call me for free.

By the way, the image above is actually of a tattoo on someone's arm. This tattoo was done by a Tattoo Artist named Miguel. He told me that women are much stronger because he's noticed that it's usually men who faint when they're getting tattooed. I found an interesting article on tattoos and choosing tattoo quotes or words.

Having contact with my friend's son meant that I hadn't totally lost my connection with her.

Since then I've been calling more friends that I haven't been in contact with lately.

Silvia Suggestion: If you're thinking of someone you care about and it's been a while since you've connected, follow through and make the effort and reach out and let them know that they matter.

Don't be embarrassed because it's been a while. Above all, don't let any more time pass before you contact them. You never know when the last conversation really becomes "The Last Conversation."

People & Technology

In Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid book titled Cabin Fever, the kid shared his insight that people invented technology so that they wouldn't have to deal with each other. I think it's not just about dealing with each other but dealing with each other---in person.

Okay, I do participate on Facebook and Google Plus. But I really still prefer to actually talk to a person on the phone or in person. For me, a true friend calls me or tries to see me in person, at least occasionally. Just sending me messages on these social media, doesn't make us best friends.

On a recent trip to Vancouver, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with quite a few friends one-on-one. What a pleasure it was! Okay, now I must admit, it was technology that made it possible.

I was able to reconnect with those friends because I could have my own personal mobile phone service. I bought my own from Speakout Wireless service at a Seven-Eleven. For under $50, I had a Simcard with my own number and 100 minutes of time that expired in a year. I simply installed the Simcard into my unlocked phone. Incoming text messages are free but outgoing aren't.  I found that I really needed to watch my talking time because if I talked 2 minutes and a few seconds, I used up 3 minutes.

Here's a photo of the Sim Card.








If you don't have a unlocked phone to use, you can buy a voucher for $100 and a free phone is included. I really like the idea of having an unlocked phone which you can simply reuse for whatever area you're in and you can get a simcard for that area. It's good to get a local number so that everyone in that area only has to make a local call to contact you.

Back to this important fact: technology made it possible for me to get what I really wanted which was one-on-one connection with people I care about. So I'm grateful for the access to this technology.

Thanks to my reconnections with some of those friends and family members, I have been more inspired to be creative with technology ---writing, taking photos and creating different forms of art including little videos. You can see some of these on my other blogs.