What is userfriendly?

Main Entry:

us·er–friend·ly 

Pronunciation:

\ˌyü-zər-ˈfren(d)-lē\

Function:

adjective

Date:

1977

: easy to learn, use, understand, or deal with <user–friendly software> ; also : agreeable, appealinguser–friendly atmosphere>

— user–friendliness noun

This blog was the brain child birthed by a long distance phone conversation:

Again my cell was quitting, shutting off during a friend's call. Besides being RUDE, bad phone, it was rather annoying to have to open the back of the phone, pull out the battery, put it all back together and then wait for the hour glass ( there's a reason it's called that and not a seconds glass) to quit spinning and then reboot the home screen. By that time my dropped friend has had time to call me twice and leave at least one message of what the F#$k?! - except Tara, because they don't cuss like truckers or me in Vancouver... I've learn that first hand! 

This time I decided to plug the phone in to see if the battery was the issue, when I returned her call. Magic... also magic; I've noticed that my refrigerator is no longer making that annoying fish tank filter sound it's been humming rather loudly. -It must have heard that I might have to REPLACE it, I'll have to check that out when I get up for some more coffee. 

Getting back to this story... I was excitedly receiving a phone call from a friend who I had been thinking of the day before. She lives on the West coast. So taking in the time difference, she called right on time. We chatted some silly stories. She pleasantly listened and chuckled when I threw in something funny. The distance faded, the time apart disappeared. We were both in the moment. Whether we were retelling a story or describing a taxing situation, we were so grounded in the moment of hearing each other. We might have well just been across from the table drinking coffee, like we did so many years ago. 

She might have called me because she sensed my thinking of her or really, to thank me for the chiapas coffee bean she had received in the mail, or to ask me  one of those "what do you think" questions we ask our loving friends.

In the past few years, with my friends and I all living long distances from each other, we've had to rely on phone calls, emails and text to reconnect. As a conduit to those times when we would sit at the coffee shop, or bar, and share our stories and then open our hearts to ask each other a "what do you think" question. We relied on the honestly and the loving understanding of the other person to give us the truth as they see it. We still need that. Even the distances can't keep us from reaching out to our core group; those who knew us before we became who we are today and live in the cities we live in today. They are the anchor for our reality, the source for our understanding why we're doing, what we're doing, today. I adore them. Love them wholeheartedly, to be humbly honest with them when I find it hard to look at my refection in the mirror and I need them to as a mirror.

This is for them, me and you.