One of the things I struggle with the most is keeping in touch with people.  With an endless number of ways to keep in touch, you would think it would be easier.  Perhaps it is our information overflow that makes it harder than ever to stay in touch.  For me personally, there is the occasional day in ministry that just drains me dry and I just need some quiet time to recharge.  I think everyone feels this way sometimes whether you’re a CPA, stay at home mom, teacher, etc.

Today’s post is a continuation of my “Lessons From the Trail” series.  A series of weekly posts on Wednesdays about lessons learned from my time on the Appalachian Trail.  Last week I mentioned my amazement that my parents would let me venture out into the unknown all by myself.  One of my concessions was carrying a cell phone with me and checking in on a regular basis.

Photo courtesy of Nokia

Back in 1999 cell phones weren’t what they are now.  All my phone did was make phone calls.  I’m pretty sure text messaging hadn’t really caught on yet.  The phone I carried was one of those awesome Nokia brick phones.  My phone was the Nokia 6110, the first phone to come with a game on it – “Snake.”  The phone was a pretty good compromise with my parents.  I was told that if I fell off the trail and was laying there dying I could phone for help.

Cell phone reception on the trail was pretty poor at that time.  A lot of time on the trail you are really not that far from some sort of civilization.  Maybe five to ten miles at the most.  When the foliage was off the trees I could actually see the occasional home or trailer in the far distance.  Sometimes the phone worked and sometimes it didn’t.

If I was camping with others I would step away from camp to make my call.  Many people were in the woods to escape technology.  It was good to talk to my Mom or Dad, and I am sure they were glad to hear my voice and know that I was OK.  There is something reassuring about keeping in touch.

Today’s cell phones are constantly beeping, buzzing and flashing to try and get our attention.  Text messages whiz in and out.  Facebook and Twitter notifications chime in.  For game players, new challenges for Words with Friends are coming in at all hours of the day and night.  Our modern phones can be blessings and curses.

How do we keep in touch with the people who matter the most?

• What’s old is new again. Letter writing has become a high-end art form.  Have you seen the reemergence of wax seals, fountain pens and fine stationary?  I am shocked at the prices that some of these items fetch in trendy stores.  But their availability points to the idea that people return to the nostalgic, crafted, caring forms of communication that they grew up with or have heard about.  You don’t need a fancy pen or a custom wax seal to write a meaningful card or letter.  That special message of love, care and concern can mean a lot to someone.  And speaking as someone with horrendous handwriting, go ahead and make that chicken scratch you call handwriting because it is a lot better than something typed on a computer.
• Filter, Turn Off, Unplug. Thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers can be tough to keep up with.  Quite often we can lose touch with the people we really want to keep up with.  Don’t be afraid to delete people you really don’t know on Facebook or other social sites.  Use settings on the social sites or special plug-ins like Social Fixer to filter out messages you prefer not to hear.  Take a sabbatical from technology.  I know a lot of families that have tech free nights in their home where the phones get turned off, the computers are shut down and the TV stays off.  There’s always the fun and motivational game to play with friends at dinner.  Stack all your phones on the table face down.  First one to touch their phone picks up the bill for dinner.
• Phone home.  My wife and I built our home next door to my parents, so I don’t really have to pick up the phone to call them these days.  Quite often our oldest daughter will ask if she can go over to Grandmother and D-Dad’s house for a while.  What a blessing to have them next door!  It is the opposite of the “Everybody Love’s Raymond” image that quite often pops into people’s imaginations.  If you don’t live next door to your parents, family members and loved ones, use that technology to give them a quick call and say, “Hello.”
• Communicate where you’re at.  Technology can distract us from the moment and place we are living in.  Parents, spouses and children can be in the same home but not actually be present.  There are calls that need to be taken and messages that need to be responded to, but make sure you give the friends or family members you are with the attention they deserve.  I sometimes worry that our youngest child always holds her hand up to her ear, as if holding a phone, when she says, “Hello.”  I wonder what we have been modeling for her.

I hope you send someone an extra special message today.  Maybe its a letter, a text, a phone call or a Facebook message.  Whatever you do, cherish the bonds that you have with people.

Loren and I entering the Smokies – March 28, 2000.

I was looking in my journal from the trail to see where I was at on March 27, 2000.  I was hiking with a man I met on the trail named Loren.  He and I are Facebook friends still and it is cool to see what he is up to in life.  Loren is a very accomplished man and one of the most interesting people I met on the trail.  On the 27th we were wrapping up 45 miles of hiking in 3 days.  We took a break off trail to resupply and refuel our bodies before heading into the Smokies.  I’m so glad my parents convinced me to write a journal from the trail.  it’s definitely not a literary masterpiece but it brings back memories so vividly.

It is interesting to note, just two weeks into the hike 50% of thru-hikers have quit by this point.  Half the people who had stepped off of Springer Mountain in Georgia with the intention of walking to Maine have already quit.  Within a few more weeks, 2/3 of those who started will have quit.  There’s a lesson in there….

Thanks for reading along today!