Life is full of memorable events, births, deaths, weddings, divorces ……………… The list could go on and on with both goodand bad parts of life. If we are all here on earth then we were born. Where we were born and our families differbut we all pretty much got here the same way. So that is a common experience for all. Death. Well if you are physicallyalive then you will die. As the saying goes nobody gets out of life alive. Each of us has a different amount of time weare alive and the way our life ends is unique to each of us. It is the part in the middle between birthand death that each of us have many choices of which roads we take and theoutcome of each.
Some of theseevents are truly GREAT and if you could shout them from the rooftop or hire askywriter to tell the world we would. IT”SA BOY or GIRL, SHE SAID “YES”! Then thereare other events make us sad and disappointed. These are still events that are common to most people. Parents die, aspouse leaves, the loss of a job, your pet died but still these are events thatyou can talk about with others. It has notbeen that long ago when if you had cancer it was whispered. So many things have changed and there is moresupport out there for each of us. There are still things that we go throughthat we have a hard time talking about. The shame of the elephant in the room that noone mentions but everyone sees. Who dowe talk about those things with? It dawned on me this week that social mediahas given people a place to find support. You may not be able to tell your family and friends that you have acertain problem but you can go to your face book buddies. There you can find support andunderstanding. This week I have seenmany of my face book friends express what trials they are going through. Therehas always been a hug, advice, prayer, or just I’m sorry. It is wonderful to have people out there thatyou may never met in person care that life has taken you down a road with a lotof potholes. Many have been down the same road and can tell you that the roadgets smoother just up ahead. All youhave to do is hang on and put one foot in front of the other.
To my nonface bookfriends it has been hard to explain the intimacy that you can have with peopleyou only see as a cat waving at you with a mustache and a sombrero. That youreally care what the doctor said or that they are looking for a job. You enjoying looking at their photo andlaughing at their silly wall post. It is fun talking about how things aredifferent where they live than where you live. Plus you find out how much weall have in common. Friendships reallydo grow in the virtual world.
I think one of themost interesting parts of this social experiment is that people become so closethat they tell their social media friends their deep dark secrets. The secrets that they have been hiding sodeep in their closets that no one in the world their real body lives in knowabout. This is such a good thing because I have only seen support given inthese cases. For every problem out therethat someone is battling there is another who has already been through the samewar and won. The support I have seen hasbeen amazing whether the issue was addiction, depression, marital, children,parents……………you name it there was someone out there who had gone through thesame journey. The support they offered is real and so heartfelt andtouching. 
So I think thething we all have to remember is if we need a hug all we need to do isask. I bet you will be surprised at howmany hugs you get. Wish somebody HappyBirthday because that might be the thing that makes their day a little better.If you’re pet dies put a picture up and your friends will cry with you. Can’t sleep in the middle of the night? WellI bet you are not alone. Basically thatis it none of us have to be alone. We all are just a click away with someonewho is traveling the same road we are on but in different places on the map. Noone needs to travel along.
