Bursting the Pressure Bubble

How did we get here?…

To the place where we lose sleep over who followed or unfollowed us in a world that is mostly unreal…

To bothering about who commented or did not comment.

Fussing over who liked or did not like what we said or showed.

Stressing so much about who didn’t comment on your status or muted it altogether.

There was a time when we didn’t have all of these, yet and we were satisfied with seeing each other once in six months and oh!What a happy meeting it would be.

A time when it was such a thrill to receive that letter once in a while from that friend from far away.

There was a time when we didn’t see each other for weeks , didn’t know what the other person wore, where she went or how she lived. Yet, we were all so truly happy with our portions in those times.

In our social media charged era, after all is said and done, this is the one question that counts:

How have we truly loved the people in our lives, our real lives, real time and offline? When the gushes online are done, do they match our present hour relationship realities?

Many days, I have paused and pondered, longing for days gone by…

Those were days when we didn’t know more than we needed to know…

Days when Seasons were easier to go through. When we didn’t have this window called social media; that window that gives us a peek into everyone else’s world.

You were grateful for your lot when you didn’t get to see pictures of who went on

a vacation to the Bahamas, the US, United Kingdom etc. You were thankful for what you had when you didn’t get to see photo splashes of who went on a shopping spree and all those fancy things they got to buy.

Your spouse was the best when you didn’t have to see how in love the other couple looked on Instagram.

You were content with your season of singleness when you didn’t get to see picture after picture of those stunning brides week after week as they tied the knot.

It was a lot easier to stay thankful, grateful and content in those days when we didn’t know.

We cannot bring back tomorrow, but we can live today with authenticity.

We can accept our present reality, not with despair but with faith and hope for the unforced growth that process brings.

We can love those in our real time and real life spaces. We can hug tighter those we are blessed to have in our lives without the pressure of posting our love for them online.

We can look a little closer at the real people we have swapped for polished, filtered pictures of Instagram perfection.

We can love that one who lives across the road with no obvious reason to be loved. We can refuse to heed the call from the glowing screen that blocks our vision from many day to day Joys and blessings we forget to count because we are too immersed in the view of the seemingly greener grass on the other side.

We can reclaim a life God truly gifted us with. We can own our challenges, and dare to live with gratitude for the reality we have confronted.

We can burst the bubble of pressure we have trapped ourselves in and exhale. We can live, love and laugh in a today that was meant to be lived beyond the screen.