Can I ask you a question?

Want to go on an adventure? Great! Then we need to talk about something first.

It is unfortunate to me that our idea of relationship has deteriorated to a quick text, a comment under a post, or a thumbs up. Somehow the internet has made me feel like I’m reading a billboard instead of having a conversation.

What happened to watching your friend’s face as they talk? What about seeing their eyes or their body language as your words actually collide with their senses? What has happened to the sound of the human voice or the gentle touch of someone who cares for you?

There is an art to face to face interaction and sadly we’ve put down what we’re created to share and exchanged it for a device that allows us to tap our way in and out of each other’s lives at our convenience.

I want you to know something about me. This breaks my heart because I know I’m more than this blog and that you are more than your comments.

When I was a kid, if I had the option to be outside climbing trees, or sitting making up conversations with my Barbie, I guarantee I would have been more chimpanzee than super model. I loved interacting with nature, watching life happen, and I still do.

When I wasn’t in a tree or throwing a ball, you could find me inside with a book in my lap. I read so much that once my Mom had to talk to a neighbor who had committed to paying $1 to a charity for every book I read. This man didn’t know the little girl he was dealing with. In one summer I read enough to probably take his car payment.

So these are key things to know about me. I love nature, I love people, and I love the written word.

The internet and social media can be a great way to connect with people far away, but it can also create a deep loneliness. It’s the kind of sadness that makes a person feel like they are watching life and yet not living it.

I have given a thumbs up on a “friend’s” post and been desperately weeping about something else at the very same time. How sad is it that we can interact this way and say we are content with this level of friendship?

I want to change this about my own life. What about you?

When we are with someone, it’s different than if we are interacting with them from a distance. Think of a love letter. When your eyes see the words an old man has written to his wife, your heart probably responds a little. Love stories are sweet, right?

It’s different when you are watching the wrinkled man talk about the faded letter he holds in his hand. When memories of a life together overflows from his eyes as his lips tremble out the story of when he wrote it, how he loved her, and how she is now gone. That’s the love letter come to life.

That’s what I want this blog, This Written Love, to be about. It’s about the parts of life that bring love alive in front of us, within us, and that move us out of our chairs.

So here we are.

Are you content with sitting alone scrolling through each other’s versions of life? Is it enough for you to look at pictures of nature but never smell the fresh air for yourself? Is it okay to feel alone when you have 479 friends?

My answer is NO to all three.

Ready to do something about it?

Let me know in the comments if you are ready to look up from your phone and interact with what’s right in front of you.

I can’t wait to see what happens.

To life and love unexpected,

Aimee