Sheila Sims Iding
I am blessed with friends. I am blessed with the BEST of friends. I think God let me go through the “friend line” twice because He knew it would take a village to raise me. He knew that someone would have to care for me, guide me and protect me. A lot of someones. This new best friend is truly heaven sent. A God given gift, if you will.
My new best friend has really blest my life in recent years. A best friend is someone who is always there for you, someone you can call on any time of the day or night, someone who brings you comfort just by their presence, someone you spend a lot of time with, someone who fills your day with happy times and empties your night of worry times. If a friend can do all that, they are a best friend indeed. My new best friend has an usual name, but like with most best friends, just the mention of the name brings comfort. My new best friend is….Skype.
In the past few years skype has been “someone” I spend time with almost daily, someone I have morning coffee with and someone who stays up late to chat. Skype has been a presence in my life but in just these past few weeks I have come to realize all the “presents” this friendship brings me. Because of skype my life has been blessed in these ways just this past month:
- Seeing Tim’s face when he landed on American soil in Los Angeles. Even a travel-worn tired face is a beautiful sight when it is on American soil.
- A face-to-face goodbye before he boarded a plane to leave American soil. So much better than a text from the boarding gate.
- Tim “sitting” at our kitchen table visiting with Joey and Addie and catching up like families do when sitting in the kitchen “together”.
- A tour of Tim’s new apartment. We closed our eyes while he walked with the camera so we didn’t get motion sick but as he entered each room and stopped we got to be right there…in his apartment. We even got to look out his window and see the street he takes to his classes each morning and the restaurant where he eats at night. Skype took us there.
- A worried call about some medical tests (everything is okay!!) but it wasn’t anything you worry about in an email. It was a face-to-face worry. And a face-to-face celebration that everything is all right. (Thank you, God.)
- A frantic call late at night about a visa issue and worry of deportation. The worried look on his face was offset a ½ hour later by the calming look to say they are working things out. Key word: "look" on his face. I got to look at the worry and, more importantly, I got to look at the calm. (I will never get used to a Communist country…even with the help of my friend, Skype.)
- A Lansing Catholic alumni cross-country runner giving a motivational speech to this year’s team while they were on a training retreat. No letter or email or phone call can replace a runner’s story coming all the way from China. When you tell about running with cystic fibrosis the message is clearer "in person". When you say "even on my worst running days it was a better day than the CF kid in the hospital" it is a special message. But when you say all that and say "I ran for the CF kid in the hospital" the message is more powerful when you can see the eyes of a blessed CF runner.
- The excited look on the face of a theologian going to the seminary to spend a day in the place where he will do his most powerful mission. A voice can have an excited tone but nothing compares to seeing your son's excited look at that "first day of school".
A year ago when Tim moved to China he ended up in the hospital soon after his arrival. It was just a bad intestinal issue and he was fine. But while Tim was on IV medicine at the hospital, Skype became my medicine that a phone call or email never could deliver.
Since he has been in China we have skyped just to visit, skyped to work through issues, and skyped to watch him open his presents on his 30th birthday. Adam and Tim skype to exchange sports news. Joey and Addie skyped from NYC with the news of their engagement and Fr. Brian skyped from Hong Kong to fill us in on Tim’s work there.
From a friend called skype Tim has taught many first graders at St. Gerard School. Because of skype Tim helped the saints come alive in their little Christian hearts. And while introducing them to the saints, he also introduced to the culture of a country half way around the world…via skype.
Because of skype we can celebrate together, talk together, laugh together and pray together. We don’t have to read between the lines of a letter or email because we can look into each other’s eyes. We can show pictures, a card that came in the mail and even a peek at the TV to show the MSU basketball team in a playoff. We see each other’s smiles and we comfort each other’s tears. And like the best of friends, skype does it all without cost (except for that call to the hospital) and like the best of friends, skype is always there.
Tim is 30 years old and he is doing fine on his own in China. Skype might help him with some culture shock and loneliness, but Skype is more of a mom thing because it brings comfort and peace of mind…something moms are always seeking and hoping to find. I just didn’t think I would find such comfort and peace of mind in a little blue icon with an “S” and a newly declared titled of “my new best friend”.
So tonight I will do what I always do since Tim moved to China. I will put my laptop on my desk by my bed. I will turn the volume up all the way. I will dim the screen. And I will go to bed knowing that if Tim needed anything, he could call on skype and because of this new friend, I could be right there with him.
And tomorrow morning I will have coffee and toast and wait for that little beep that announces “Tim is online” and then I will have a little visit with Tim all because of a friend who I can call on day or night, a friend who brings me peace of mind, a friend who comforts me and a friend who is a special presence in my life.
I tell the first graders that God’s gifts are the ones you can’t get in a store or buy online. I believe that is absolutely true with maybe one exception. Skype. I know Skype isn’t the majestic mountains, the miracle of a life cycle or the beauty of a sunrise…all gifts from God. But I do believe when you can call a hospital in China, or share an engagement from NYC or pray together face-to-face half way around the world…somewhere tucked in there is a gift from God. And, as silly as it may seem, I will be forever grateful for this God-given gift called Skype…my new best friend.