Author: Innermost Being

I am a follower of Jesus Christ. Blogging has been a rewarding addition to my spiritual journey. It has shown me how much I want to connect with other people. It has revealed my fears and self-doubts and helped me to face them. My Innermost Being blog is about pursuing spiritual growth through self-examination.

Communication evolution

by Innermost Being, posted in Introversion, Word Prompts

In what ways do you communicate online?

At 60 years of age, I’ve witnessed an evolution in the ways people communicate. We used to write letters by hand or with a typewriter and send them by snail mail. We called people with our rotary phones using landlines. If they didn’t answer the phone, we had to call them back. Then we got push-button phones, fancy-schmancy cordless phones, and telephone answering machines. If we needed to send business documents quickly, we used facsimile (fax) machines.

In my career, the evolution of communication in the workplace has included the modernization of phones and voicemail systems, as well as the use of email to send messages and documents. For a while, we used Skype for instant messaging and meetings. Now, my company uses Microsoft Teams for meetings and calls.

Today, I use Facebook to communicate with family and friends. I signed up on Facebook when my nephew Chris was serving in the Peace Corps in Uganda. Facebook was the best way to learn about his experiences in Africa. Nowadays, Chris rarely posts anything on Facebook, but my online community has expanded.

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love being able to communicate so easily regardless of distance. My childhood penpal found me on Facebook, and I’ve gotten back in touch with other friends and family. But Facebook can be so addictive! It can make you worry that you’ll miss out on something important if you don’t check it frequently. It quickly spreads lies and disinformation and divides friends and family. One year, I gave up Facebook for Lent. Now, I have a time limit for it on my smartphone.

I signed up for Instagram when I took Facebook off my phone. I love sharing pictures of nature – scenery from my hikes, wildflowers, deer, etc. But Instagram is kind of creepy because strangers (usually men) send follow requests and unwanted messages if you accept. I immediately shut off that line of communication.

I am on LinkedIn, but I rarely use it. I look forward to updating my profile to say that I’m retired!

As an introvert, it’s easier for me to communicate by writing than talking. Twelve years ago, I started blogging with Google Blogger, then switched to WordPress.

The interesting thing is that I’ve evolved with the changes in technology. No, I don’t text a lot like young people do. I’m “typing” this post on my phone with one finger. But communicating online, especially blogging, has turned me into a talker in meetings. You might not even know that I’m an introvert.

Road trip!

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

When I was a kid, the only road trips we ever took were from Eastern Kansas, where we lived, to visit my mom’s family in Indiana. These trips were long car rides with five or six kids crammed into the car. The most memorable sight on our usual route to Indiana was the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri; I also liked driving across the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

On my most memorable family road trip, we combined a visit to mom’s family with a return trip through Oklahoma to see my adult brother, who was stationed at Fort Sill at the time. I was in college and home for the summer. To get to Oklahoma, we drove through Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

It wouldn’t have taken long to drive through Kentucky or Tennessee. I remember driving through the Ozarks in Arkansas, or at least an area with hills and a lot of trees. There was a nuclear power plant. That was memorable because I had never seen one before.

The most memorable sight in Arkansas was a real, live roadrunner! It wasn’t just a cartoon character!

Oklahoma was also memorable to me because the dirt was red, unlike the soil in Kansas. Just today, I learned that in 1987, a few years after our visit, the state of Oklahoma designated port silt loam as the official state soil.

This trip down memory lane brings back memories of things I saw for the first time. It also brings back memories of mom, a single mother driving hundreds of miles to see her family. I miss you, Mom.

A healthy snack

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

What snack would you eat right now?

It’s just after 4:30 am where I live. I have already broken my overnight fast, so I’m not hungry right now. When I do get hungry again, I will eat a healthy snack.

My cholesterol has been borderline high for the last several months. I read that plant-based proteins reduce LDL and overall cholesterol. I bought a bag of pistachios to see if eating them makes a difference.

It’s a tasty experiment!

Email Organizing Service

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

Come up with a crazy business idea.

It drives me crazy when I am at a coworker’s desk, and I can see that they have hundreds of emails in their inbox. Even worse is when those emails are in bold font, so it looks like they haven’t been read! My boss is one of those people.

I’m an organized person. I don’t like having more than twenty emails in my work inbox. When an email comes in, I read it. If I don’t need it, I delete it. If it’s junk, I mark it as junk so that Microsoft Outlook will put it and future emails from that sender in my junk folder. If I want to keep the email (or if I need to keep it for future reference), I will file it in a folder.

Within my inbox, I have multiple folders, and there are folders within some of those folders. For example, Company A/Expenses/Vendor. When my boss asks if I received a particular email, I can easily find it.

I also tag important emails for follow-up.

You can categorize emails with color. I find that it’s not necessary to categorize if you use a folder system.

For a fee, my business would organize business emails. It’s a crazy business idea because the people who are unorganized don’t care!

Attachments

by Innermost Being, posted in Word Prompts

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

My youth was a long time ago. I don’t remember being incredibly attached to anything.

I do remember that I had a stuffed animal with bells in its ears. I think it was a dog wth floppy ears, but I can’t form a complete picture of it in my mind. I don’t know what became of it. We moved fairly often, including four times during my fifth grade year. I’ve always wondered if my toy was lost in one of those moves.

As an adult, I don’t feel incredibly attached to things. I do hang onto things I like, including the few momentos I have from my youth.