Hearing the voice of loved ones on the phone

Playl's Ponderings

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I’m not saying how old she is (you wouldn’t believe me if I told you) but by the end of the day on her birthday Sammie - AKA “Momma,” AKA “Nahnee” - had received a call from each of our four children and heard their precious voices plus the sweet voices of a couple of our stinking cute grandkids. One of her sisters also called and a couple of nieces texted birthday greetings. The next morning, two more of the grands called and sang “Happy Birthday to you...”. Those greetings made her day, uh...couple of days. Their verbal expressions of love meant more than monetary gifts. Hearing their voices may even have been more special than being served breakfast in bed by yours truly.

The four grands she talked to were the youngest of our seven and represented all of them as James David spoke for his siblings as well as himself. James David proclaimed that his father, our son-in-law, was getting Nahnee her “specialist” and most unusual gift. After suffering through some very hot nights, in Petersburg, Virginia, the HVAC repairmen were finally getting their AC fixed. That may not sound like much of a gift for Sammie, but knowing our grandchildren - and their parents - would be cool was indeed a cool birthday present.

Katie Grace and her mother singing their greeting was of course a professional presentation. Every word by every person was a treasured gift, but it was to the two Playl boys that my wife emphasized her deep feelings. “Please, continue to call us often. Facetime is great, but even a simple phone call is good. We long to hear your voices, because we love you both so very much.”

Those words were only representative of the message we would send to all of our family and others. I believe they also depict the feelings of lots of folks out there, some much more than us. We are indeed fortunate to have children and grandchildren who do love and care for us. Some folks are pretty much alone in the world and would give anything to hear a few words of love and encouragement.

Others have lots of family members but, for whatever reason, find themselves alienated from all of them. Whether it happens daily, once in a while, or rarely ever, most of us are uplifted by a few kind words and best wishes, even when there is no special occasion to celebrate.

Sometimes our kids call and talk for hours. Other times they just call and say, “Hey, just called to check on you” or “How’s it going today? Haven’t talked to you in a while” or “I just called to say, ‘I love you’.” All of those expressions carry a lot of encouragement.

Is there someone you need to reach out to? It might be a face-to- face encounter with a stranger or perhaps a phone call to someone you love but have neglected to tell recently. Kind words are important. Words of love are often, as noted above, more precious than extravagant gifts.

Dale Carnegie said, “Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.”

Proverbs 16:24 says, “Kind words are like honey sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.” And Proverbs 25:11, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.”

And, by the way, when have you called home...as in “Our Father in heaven, Your Name is holy. I love you...”? He wants to hear from His children, often...and you don’t need a cell phone or computer to talk to Him.

-Steve Playl may be reached by email. playlsr@yahoo.com

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