Dotting The I's And Crossing The T's

I’m going to admit this right up front. I use punctuation in my texts. I know, I know, texting is a minimalist effort, less is more, words stripped to just a single letter, the fewer vowels the better. But I can’t do it. I’ve tried, but just can’t resist the urge. It’s like I crave that comma. My mind just can’t let my body hit send without that final period. It’s like a song ending on the note just before the final note. It leaves me feeling unsettled.
Since I have kids with phones, and a husband to travels frequently, I really do try to stay ahead of the curve and keep up with the latest technology. I actually love texting and the instant connection it offers at times when, in the “olden days”, we would just have been lost, or lonely, or bored or separated from life back home. It is worth gold to me to get a surprise midnight text from a sleepover that says, “luv u” or “gnite”.
I suspect that part of my affinity for marking up my texts may stem from my English Major college days, but it goes beyond that. It’s primal. I think those little insignificant twists, turns, lines and dashes along the pathways of our writing are such a metaphor for the same things along the pathways of life. A stretch? Maybe, but I really think it’s part of my addiction.
Here’s why. I firmly believe in finding small reminders in our hectic everyday lives to remember that the little things really are the big things in the end.
One of my favorite little things is to jump for joy. I force everyone in my family to do it now and then. And I mean we really do jump around the living room, fling our arms in the air and have a good hoot once in a while to celebrate. Now, sometimes my celebration is far more enthusiastic than others in my house, but I don’t care, because I know they need this! “C’mon, jump!” I urge them. “Who cares how we look--It feels so good!”
I just firmly believe some things shouldn’t slip past without the wild celebration they deserve, life’s too short. We have too many reasons not to jump around. I say, when you get one, grab a hold and jump. We need exclamation points in our lives! That’s why I really can’t hit send on an “I luv u!” text without the proper ending.
Like every family we are challenged to get everything done. We struggle to keep every plate spinning, and sometimes we crash. But life on high speed burns you out unless you can find a place to pause along the way.
Last week I was running behind, as I do many mornings, when I realized with a quick glance out the window, that I was missing something stunning. An amazing show that would last just a few minutes as the sun was coming up just perfectly. It was like a magic show, to see the morning frost reflect off of otherwise invisible spider webs. I actually pulled to the side of the road, to soak it in just for a minute, to marvel at the miraculous engineering work of those tiny dreaded spiders and the
diamond crystals shining so beautifully in a quiet, secret roadside garden. I felt so lucky that I had a chance to notice the comma in my life, to pause, if just for a few seconds or risk missing one of life’s ordinary miracles.
And of course sometimes we just need to stop. Period. This year the Christmas ads started before Halloween. And Thanksgiving really didn’t get much attention. We decided early in November we needed to find a way to make the season feel the way we want it to feel. We realized we needed to stop the noise around us. We needed to focus on a lot more than what to buy. We needed to not
just slow down, because sometimes that’s not enough. We needed ways to stop.
Everything. Period. That is a gift.
So, that’s why I am ruined when it comes to texting, at least the short and
sweet way. My life, it seems, is just incomplete without a nod to those little signs
marking our way.