Hello friends and patriots...lend me your...shoulder?

I have been flitting around the Internet for a very long time taking part in what I tend to call "mind squats" which are just places like this...teamsugar.com and making friends.

One common factor I have found wherever I go in this vast wilderness is that there are people like you and me. We are looking for a connection and a place to be heard. Mostly we are curious about what others have to say and we secretly hope to be validated in some way.

I think we all have things to offer. Some of us are care-givers that want to help someone in any way we can, others are great listeners...and there is always a shortage of people that listen and then actually reply. We find solace in words often offered by strangers. I do victory dances with each reply. It doesn't matter if you don't even agree with what I wrote. I dance.

This is the new and somewhat odd way of going about making friends on the Internet. Personally I have spent perhaps 1 hour of my entire life in a chat room and found them tremendously lacking. Many there do not even know why they are there. That 1 hour was very revealing to me. I met more "fake" and self-serving people in that short amount of time than you could possibly imagine.

For me, chat rooms are the epitome of the question "Does this make me look fat?" because honesty is not there. Reality is rarely found in a chat room. Do I think I find it here instead? Perhaps.

Why? Because here in forums, in all these little mind squats, each of us make an effort to inform, foster thought, share insight, and occasionally even give a glimpse of who we are in real life. You may get more from a chat room than I did, but the "content" you find and write yourself in a forum is much more substantial.

I get a kick out of our icons. We change our faces, experiment with appearing to be maybe exactly what we envision ourselves to be but those that actually know us would probably never recognize. We give perfect strangers a glimpse of something we often do not share with the "real" people in our lives.

Recently I experimented with my icon. Silly, cheeky, sexy, ridiculous, and now finally me....well...sort of. The reactions of those here on teamsugar has been very amusing--and interestingly very supportive.

Don't you think it is interesting that perfect strangers encourage us to explore even icons, even to the point of ridiculousness? Do the "real" people in our lives give us that same support to be silly, superficial, beautiful, naughty, and opinionated? I think it is safe to say that many of you probably only find that freedom in your life here.

Sort of makes you wonder why you keep some parts of "you" so private from those you actually SEE everyday, as opposed to the faces you SEE here. Many of us need that freedom in our lives and we seek it and find it here, or in another mind squat. The point is that we NEED it. We NEED each other.

Why is it so much easier to admit to strangers how we feel, what we are passionate about, what we are struggling with, and asking for advice and help? Because even if we are not appreciated or even if we are judged in some way, this is just the Internet. We have some freedom here. There is always someone that will connect to what we have said in some way and even comment.

On another side, we often ask the difficult questions we can't of those we are physically close to. Many people on the net are like me, people that were stuck in a chair, behind a desk, or in a home and unable to get out and "move about" real people every day. Either because of an illness, an injury, or just because that is where we happen to be...at work, retired, or bored.

When I was injured I suffered through 7 years of multiple surgeries. My life was dramatically changed. While circumstances may be different for all of us, I think we all share a need to connect in some way. We share pieces of ourselves, big pieces of our hearts, and hope that what we offer will be embraced.

I recently posted a few articles in other forums that were topics close to my heart. They were well received and the tremendous amount of private mail revealed something to me--we really DO need each other. We are so lucky to find ourselves surrounded with friends.

"Spoon of Sugar" is just a little remedy for all of us. We can come here to rant, to rave, to reach out, and to connect. The advice and assistance I have received as well as given here on teamsugar is testimony that there are some really great people here.

So, when we need some brutal honesty---the bare bones that our BBF's would never say to our faces....we can find it here. BUT we can also listen to each other, offer help, sympathize, and perhaps even help each other through some parts of life.

My intention here is this....make it clear in your post if it is a rant, a rave, or a cry for help. Ask yourself what you NEED of us and then step up to the plate and post away. If you need advice, please say so. I am sure there will be someone that reads your post and replies.

All of you are very interesting people with many things to share. Share some of that remarkable and wonderful stuff that makes you special. Women intuitively mentor each other. We help each other become bright and shiny....Shine brightly here!

Give and Get a Spoon Full of Sugar.

Love This Email Print Facebook Stumble It! Report