Google's Thanksgiving Doodle
Yesterday I was blessed to spend the day doing what I love. Cooking, entertaining and spending time with friends. With family spread out in other parts of the country and the world, I have created my own family with friends who I have met along the way.
My friend and editor, Vicki joined yesterday’s celebration. I spend most holidays with her. We met at a business networking event several years ago and became friends. Our first meeting at my office, circa 2006, she gave me a book on feng shui. I immediately took her suggestions, moved some stuff around my space and it made such a difference. Yesterday, when she was in my home office she commented that it wasn’t a creative space. I have been feeling this for some time and have been begging Nate Berkus for an office make-over! While I am waiting for a call back from Nate, I think I will buy a gallon of Idea Paint and create a space that feels more like me and less like a typical corporate setting. Thanks Vicki for the push in that direction. Note: If there are any artists reading this who want to donate an awesome piece for my office, I will gladly promote your work.
The other people who joined the table were members of the Gudgin family, who belong to my friend Graham. Graham is a friend who I met on Twitter and who made some introductions for me that really helped my speaking career take off. Yes, I spent Thanksgiving with someone I met on Twitter proving that it is not just about what you had for dinner, but who you are having dinner with.
The other component to my day was preparing my feast with the help of my Facebook family. As I encountered some cooking roadblocks, I simply went to Facebook and posted my questions. I learned that sangria needs to be made the day before and that running a frozen turkey under cold (never hot) water can defrost it in no time. I was also able to help my friend Cameron make his turkey and stuffing as he blindly followed advice from me and several others. I’m still waiting to hear how his dinner turned out. Never have I felt more connected than I did yesterday. Connected, not just by technology, but to people who care and who help each other. And once the cooking was over and the guests arrived, the gadgets went away and we disconnected and were just together.
It’s amazing to look at how small the world can be when friends from as far away as Monaco spent the morning “talking turkey” and making my day so much richer.
And yes, I also had a little help from my good friend Google when I needed to figure out how to set my table because I can never remember my left from my right. And as I stood in my kitchen, reading recipes off of my iPad, I was thankful not for technology, but for the people who I connected to through technology.
So what is the moral of this story? Technology is simply a vehicle to bring us closer to people. It’s people who matter most. Happy Black Friday to all of my friends out there from Edison to Everywhere the interweb goes. Tomorrow, we will be celebrating Small Business Saturday…together.