Phone Calls

March 2020

Today I am pondering phone calls.  Well, sort of.  Really, I am pondering the little things in life.  Moments.  The fractions of life that seem inconsequential but truly matter.  This is where joy is found.  You may have heard the advice to “enjoy the little things” so frequently that you are inured to its meaning.  And it’s not just believing that little things are important.  There is an actual art to being able to stop and make sure you enjoy them. First, you must see the difference between joy and happiness.

Happiness is a framework for life, circumstantial.  Dependent on others or things happening around you. More like a state of being than a feeling.  On the other hand, joy is instantaneous.  A sensation.  And based on small moments of time.  Fleeting, yet if strung together, they can create a cumulative satisfaction that goes beyond happiness.  If you can find a way to pay attention to these moments, you will bring a little more joy to your everyday life. And to those around you. I just had one.

Nowadays, our lives move too fast to even realize that moments exist.  But they do. We just tend to ignore them.  In many cases we actually avoid them.  They are often inconvenient.  Whether taking the time to plant a garden, being fully absorbed in a crossword puzzle, or sitting quietly on the beach trying to just stop, listen, smell, and feel your surroundings.  Those things take a lot of work.  Inconvenient in a fast-paced world.

I called a friend today and spoke to her for just a few minutes.  Now that is old fashioned!  In this digital age, text messages are certainly the favored method of communication.  And I use them all the time.  They certainly are quicker and more convenient. Phone calls are tough, when you have other things to do, or dislike talking on the phone. Like I do.

Yet the voice of someone you care about cannot be heard in a text.  Hearing that voice is a small pleasure many people tend to overlook. Today, we just had a short conversation, less than 10 minutes, and that interaction provided a moment of true joy.  She was giddy from “Hello”, and her enthusiasm was obvious.  Hearing her laugh, having us laugh together, brought me a sensation that a text message, devoid of tone of voice, would never do.  Despite the plethora of emojis and acronyms available.  That phone call made my day.  I know it made hers too.  She texted back to tell me!