It is easy to forget just how powerful it is when someone makes themselves available to you. Spending time is one thing, but when someone is willing not only to spend time with you but to be available to you, to help you, to encourage you, to enjoy life with you, that is a great gift.
In the day of so many portable electronic devices it is very easy to be partially there but partially away somewhere else. But often you are neither here nor there, you are in another place, a little bit like Playstation's 'third place'. Ultimately it is a world where you are the centre, where you straddle the divide between where your body is and where your mind is. It is a selfish place in many cases.
Am I against cellphones, blackberry's, i-Phones and the like - no, of course not, they are very useful, but they are a neutral force - able to be used well or badly. In my opinion we can be tempted with devices such as these to retreat from the place where we are, where we may have responsibility, where we could interact with what is before us, where we could connect with another human in some meaningful way. We can be tempted to continue to be a receiver - of entertainment, of pastime, of input. And very often the muscle of output atrophies.
Check yourself, are you fully present with your wife, your kids, your friends, workmates etc? Or are you living in a flux between a cyber entertainment and where your body is?
My final word, don't believe the saying; "it's the thought that counts", you know in your own life actions speak louder than words, take action today.
