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Be audacious. Call your mom. Call your friends. Call the people you love.

Call your friends. Call your family. Call your mom. Call your cousins. Call the people you love.

“What? Do what?” I hear you say while your mental brakes are screeching!

You read that right.

Call your friends.

I am working on a new idea.That thing in your hand that you are always looking at, (I hope not while you are making love though puleez!)

That is a PHONE as in iPhone. So why not use it?

I know totally radical. But I am going for radical and nothing less.

Am starting a “Call -your-friends-and-family movement”.

Use your phone as a telephone. Yes I know I am so weird, so last century.

Call me crazy.

Call me old fashioned but I am up to bringing back talking on phones to each other using our ears, hearts and voices. Just not so loudly in an elevator that I know all the details of your root canal and please keep your voice down on a train or in a restaurant. And nope not in a yoga studio either. Nor movies or a play.

Please be considerate and speak softly.

And if you are driving use a Bluetooth or other headset or in-dash device.

The life you save could be mine. Thank you very much.

Now before you get all weird. A Text is a great thing for sharing information I love being able to instantly let someone know I am running out the door see you soon.

It is not an activity for when you are driving.

Talking on the phone equals Connection. I don’t know about you but I get a lift when I speak to family and friends and I hear their voices. There is no substitute for the sound of the human heart as expressed in emotion and connectivity through the spoken, shared word. If we really listen you can hear so much of what is being said and what is left unspoken. No amount of Emoji’s is a substitute for the spoken word.

The sound of who we are what the heart feels that is what one hears in voice to ear, ear to voice communications. Is it possible we twenty-first-century beings are so overloaded that we are afraid of intimacy and of the time it takes, that we prefer a text to true heart-level conversation?

Here is a thought for this decade. What if the more we connect with others and truly get to know their heart, the more chance we have for living together peacefully. One person at a time.

So get radical.

Call a friend. Check-in with your family. Face-time them. Call someone. Surprise them. Set up your voice-mail. Go out on a limb! Whatever works. Just find your groove and make a move. Take the time to say “hi”.

Have intimate giggling, crying, sharing enjoying, heart-centered conversation. Even just for 5 minutes. Snuggle up with that phone of yours and call someone you love.

One caveat here: you might have to send them a text to tell them what you are up to.

Or share this with your friends and let them know it’s my fault you are calling them.

Go give it a whirl.

That’s so fancy.

Xo love and light.

After loss finding my life

This isn’t the most flattering photo of Mark yet I love it because it is so very Mark. He WOULD be the one to climb up on a tower after hiking up a steep slope. Taken near Woodstock 16 plus years ago on a crisp fall day.

I have spent the past year trying to find my life. Married to Mark for 26 years and living with him for close to 30, I can tell you as he would say, “It ain’t easy.” Before he left this earth he made me promise to “enjoy your life, be happy,” I remember looking in his gaunt face, his golden brown eyes, me choking back the tears, sniffling and pawing at him still strong but very skinny arms begging for the impossible. A miracle. We had all our miracles. Time was up. Game over. No more hikes in the woods, walks on the beach, getting lost on purpose, no more skating, no more dancing. Oh the dancing . We danced everywhere from the Rainbow Room to our Living room.

And right then as I sat there holding his hand clinging to him, a song came on my iPhone, via Pandora, Maroon 5-“Moves Like Jagger”.

Something miraculous happened, though not surprising. Mark rose-waving off any offer of assistance and looked me in the eyes, smiled and whispered in my ear, ” Last dance?” We danced one more Hustle, one more Lindy, one more booty shaking dance- just one more time.

Mark danced with gusto with all the energy he could muster. He was weak, he was dying. But Mark was a powerhouse. One of his many nicknames was Mr. Mighty. And in that moment he was indeed Mr. Mighty. Mark wasn’t one to pass up a chance to climb a tower, dance a dance, learn a new skating move or give up even when the time had come to let go.

Mark savored life. I miss how when we were together we would take an ordinary day and make it special. Sometimes I step, sometimes I stumble but each day I take him with me and find the joy and count my blessings for all that he gave me.

Stay tuned hon.

For peace of mind only do business with companies with excellent customer service.

Jumping for joy in Bulimba — Image by State Library of Queensland, Australia via Flickr

If a company does not make you jump for joy why would you do business with them?

Way back in the 20^th century most companies got the bright idea that instead of having people available to give you support when one of their products failed ( and they seem to do that pretty quickly these days especially if it is a blender!) you would have to go through a maze of recorded, robo-voices and press this numbers, press that number to ultimately just press –0- to speak to an actual person. I usually just press –0- and skip all that other nonsense.

Fast-forward to today the year 2011 and most companies have made it nearly impossible to want to do business with them with the exception of an outstanding few. I am sure there are others but these are two who have made me a very happy customer.

Costco is one that gets and A+ from me. Why? First of all they take everything back. I recently ordered a sofa from them online. Yes, I know who orders a sofa online? I really was just testing the sofa waters and this was a good place to start. I reasoned that if I liked it, I would have saved myself time, energy and gas running all over to find the sofa of my dreams. When it arrived it looked nice enough but after about a week of sitting on this uncomfortable contraption, I picked up the phone and asked them to come pick it up. Within a matter of days two guys came and took it away and my money was refunded. Very cool.

Last summer I purchased a Mophie for my iPhone at the Apple Store because I was going off on an adventure in the Squamish Mountains and I knew there would be no place to plug in my phone and I use it as my alarm clock. If you don’t know what a Mophie is, it is a battery pack that gives the iPhone user who is constantly running to find an outlet to plug in more time to play with all the features that suck up the battery life so quickly.

The mophie did exactly what I wanted it to do but for some reason when I put it away and took it out to use again, it would not hold a charge. Bummer.

When I called Mophie, to my surprise, I spoke to Stacy an actual person in customer service who completely understood my problem and she let me know that lucky me my Mophie was still under warranty and they would send me another all I had to do was go to the website and fill out a form, scan my receipt and then I heard from Dave via email who sent me a return authorization and a prepaid label.

OMG. OMG. I thought this is amazing. Now I have a brand new Mophie, in white so it looks cool and doesn’t get totally lost in the jungle that is my handbag. Now I get to love my iPhone even longer when I am out and about and I don’t have to stress out looking for an outlet.

And when I upgrade my iPhone I would buy another. And hey Mophie people, don’t ever change because I tell everyone I know who has an iPhone to get themselves a Mophie.

Now that’s something to jump for joy about don’t you think?