Addicted to Facebook!

I was that person who when they first heard about Facebook said, "You people are crazy! Who in the world would care what you are doing? Who would read that stuff? Obviously you people have no life. Well, hang around me for a while and show you what work looks like." Oh, yeah, those were all of my self-righteous thoughts when I first heard the about the world of Facebook. I entered if because of sheer peer-pressure. Yes, you would think that at 40 the days of peer pressure would be over, but obviously they are still alive and well and I am pathetic to resist them. (That might need to be my next visit on my counselor's sofa...just saying.)
I quickly found myself engulfed in the vortex. I had taken the red pill and I was loving it. I reconnected with my best friends from every school I ever attended. And my daddy is a pastor, so there are tons. I found old college friends, high school friends, middle school friends and elementary friends. I found out that two of my best buddies had lived in my same city for years and we never even knew it. Just had dinner with one the other night. I get to see their children. Get to hear their latest adventures. And found I am ridiculously interested in their status updates.
I have found Facebook to be an amazing world of marketing opportunities as well. If I put up a new post on my blog I tell them. If I'm working on a book edits I share it. If I'm bowling with my nieces I update it. But I've found something else in Facebook. I've found that very often I'm so consumed with what the next update will be, making it smart, or witty, that I am missing the moments I'm actually living in.
The last couple years for me have been about learning to be present. Present in conversation with my friends. Present in the experiences that I am experiencing. Present in the moments that God has given me to live and enjoy. And something about the perpetual need to "update" my moments had me missing out on my moments.
Now, don't get me wrong, I still "update" myself. Still read other's updates as well. But what I don't do is miss a moment that I'm living so that someone else can experience it with me. They can experience it once I'm through, or I can tell them about it before I go. But life, to be truly lived, needs a person truly present in the living of it. And so that is where I find myself today. Present.
In a few minutes I'm going to make myself present in my book editing process. Tomorrow I'm going to make myself present at a movie with a friend. Sunday I'm going to allow myself to be present in the sermon my Pastor will preach. And no more am I going to allow the distractions of life to cause me to miss living life.

Denise makes her home in Franklin, Tennessee with her two shih-tzu's Maggie and Sophie (Independent and Co-dependent). She loves good food, good movies, cold Cokes and every now and then she writes a few books.