Coming Together

By Tina Bury 

Twenty years ago, at the age of 21, I moved to Alaska from Michigan. 
​All by myself. 

This was the time when the internet was just finding its way into homes and you had to wait patiently for that ...doo to, doo to, doo to, doo to, doo to do (yes, this is my best effort to imitate the sound of a dial-up modem in written form!) to then slowly, oh so slowly, browse websites.

One day in my 20th year, I found a job listed online when I searched for Denali National Park, Alaska.  Following a whim, and before my head could talk my heart out of it, I applied for the position.

It was at a hotel just outside of the park, and a few months later I boarded my first ever airplane on my first ever solo trip, full of excitement and trepidation.

Oh, was my heart right...it was such an experience.  My mind broadened in ways that only being exposed to different people can do.  People who were formed from different experiences and in different locales.  

I ate food I had never before eaten, often fresh from the ocean, kayaked with sea otters and hiked mountains I had never before seen...all while singing a ditty so as to alert any grizzly bears of my existence.

But, really, that's not the story I'm telling today, I'm talking about connection.

See, I spent 3 years living it up in Alaska and found myself only drawn home by the pull of family.  I missed them too hard to stay. 

One of the most beautiful experiences of that time was when I would "meet" my brother online, me at the public library, he in his living room in Michigan, to play euchre with two other unknown-to-us humans in the very rudimentary and simple, early online gaming spaces. 

It made me giddy.  Not playing euchre.  I was never very good at that.  But, coming together with my loved one, "connecting" online, when I could not easily see him in person. 

It was a balm on my lonely, albeit fun-filled, heart.

I was thinking about that time today as we start our second week of social isolation. 

I'm amazed at how authentic and real the connections I've made online feel and to that effect, I recorded you a little video!

Come together dear ones, in any way you can.  (except physically, for the greater good, not that).

Host a Zoom meet up with your girlfriends for an hour and knit and drink wine and connect.  Facetime your mama. Plan to read a story to your grandbaby on Skype. OR...play some euchre with your brother. 

Connection, it's what makes the world go round!

In Deep Kinship,
Tina     

 N3 Note: Tina Bury called the Newaygo area home before tramping off to the snowy north where she found herself a mama and a sewing teacher.  She hosts sewing retreats and workshops in Michigan for garment sewists who crave connection and finally want to wear and sew clothes they love.   She also has an online course where you can get mindful and intentional about what you wear and how you show up in the world and give yourself more joy in your craft.  She shares her musing on making in her weekly e-letter and on her blog. Kinshiphandwork.com                                                 ​

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