Time to visit

I used to sit in my mother’s living room and we would have long talks. She would sit in her chair, by the lamp I bought for her one Christmas, on the west side of the living room and I would sit on the couch. Of course we would talk about everything under the sun and every once in awhile she would teach me Indian words. She said in Indian on one of those visits “how we didn’t have time to visit each other, mostly because everybody is so busy.” She was right and it’s still that way. I sometimes get caught up in my work and then I go home and stay home and watch the tube. Or in the summer time I work in my yard till dark. That usually translates into not seeing many people other than my family.

Well yesterday I had to take my grandson Pat ko shuk to the clinic (For the record, I took leave and filled out the appropriate paperwork), because he was sick and as a walk-in we had to wait for awhile. This is understandable. We couldn’t make an appointment because it’s fairly hard to know when your kids are going to get sick. But the point of this that it allowed me to visit some people I never get to see much.

They talked about where they are living now and the long commute to visit the clinic. Some talked about religion, and cultural things. Others talked about their birthdays, and how old they were getting and of course their health or current state of health. It was all good listening and drinking the strong coffee they had that day.

And last week we went to Bartlesvile, Oklahoma where Royal Valley dancers contested with other youth dancers. They took first place. Again it was an opportunity to visit some of my relatives and friends.

I think at times we forget the value of taking time to visit each other. It seems like facebook or email is taking away that face to face interaction and in some cases that might not be all that bad but I know I enjoyed those short visits. I need to do that at least once a year.