If you think about it, everything in life is about connections. Connections between people, things, thoughts. We are all connected in such strange ways. We connect with people in person, at work, on the telephone, online. It seems that everything that we do in life is meant to forge a connection with someone, somewhere, in order to bring about some sense of community, or understanding. If there is one other person in this world that we can connect with, it makes us feel as though we aren’t all alone. There is someone else who understands what we are, who we are, and they are going through the same things we are. Or they at least want to share in what we’re going through.

When I was in high school, the internet didn’t exist. It’s weird. We didn’t have email. We had to write actual letters and send it in the mail in order to communicate with people who lived far away. I still have all the letters I got from my friends in Texas, stashed away in a shoe box. And now, they are all my friends on facebook. And I can talk to them or comment on status updates all the time, any time.

It is strange, the way Facebook has connected me with all the people I have known in my life. I can now have access to my friends and family from when I was little, to my friends and co-workers now. And all the friends I thought I had lost are found again, through facebook. I can share whatever I want with everyone I was ever friends with.

And I have never been so social in all my life.

Sometimes I wonder about this need to connect with people. Why do we need other people to talk to, to email, to communicate with? Yes, we all should have people we can talk to for just about anything, but do we need to always be talking, to always connect with someone, at any time of the day?

Maybe. Maybe we just want to feel as though other people are listening. Maybe we just want to put our words out into the cosmos and let everyone we ever cared about read what we are thinking about, right now. I’m doing it right now, with this blog post. I write not for myself, but so others can read my words, inhale them, take them in, and really think about them. I want my words to marinate in your mind, linger in the back of your thoughts. My words are alive as soon as they appear on the screen. They exist in another world that is somewhere out there in space. I have no control over them once I type them and post them. It’s a bit scary.

We have so many different types of communities that connect us. For me, I have my facebook friends. And I have my knitting community on ravelry, which is pretty much facebook for knitters (and so awesome!). I have several people I knit with, in person, on a regular basis, and I have people I work out with at the gym. I have a core group of friends that I email on a regular basis, just because. My family is always there, in addition to the people I consider family because we all share in the same things and enjoy hanging out with one another. I connect with parents of my daughter’s friends, who are going through the same things I am going through. And I hope to stay connected with them as my daughter grows up.

I am a part of many people’s lives, and they are a part of me. It’s interesting the way our lives are affected by those that we know, and how the things we do in our lives affect those we care about it. I feel very connected at the moment. With everyone. If I have a thought, I can post it on twitter, or facebook, and someone half way across the world can see it. Maybe it makes them smile, or laugh. Or maybe it inspires them to think about their world in a different way. Or maybe they just like reading it, cause they know I’m still there, thinking my strange thoughts, and living my life the only way I can. Moment by moment, word by word. Always curious, always wanting to learn more, to find out more about everything.

Everyone has connections, they just have to know how to find them.