“linked in”

I’m not an internet savvy person. And, for some reason, it’s not at the top of my list. I seem to be more interested in getting outside or messing with other things. Like my fabric or getting this house kind of fixed up.

But I’m friends with people who have the skills I lack. And are constantly expanding them. And I watch with wonder as they “link” with more and more people and ideas.

By contrast, I have been wandering in the woods – as you may have noticed. In the actual, gorgeous and sweetly alone woods. Just yesterday, I encountered an older man – there are many older men in Bath, perhaps because the Iron Works is a bastion of male employment. 

Regardless, he was out walking with his dog – and surprised Peaches and me. His response was “Oops! I must have wandered off the less known paths to end up here”. And thus I got my first inkling that there are more paths. More paths than the ones on the map. More paths that the general public/ the newbies like me don’t know about. I think to myself, “A-ha!” I’m going to find these lesser known byways. I’m going to explore, so that I can find my own way when the seasons change.

It’s not linked in, LinkedIn, as in meeting more people. It’s linked in as in paths that interconnect. And finding my way, MY way maybe to … fewer people?

Yet, I wonder if, somehow the two “linked in”s don’t serve a similar purpose – we both get fed. What feeds me is that time apart. What feeds them/their businesses is connection.

But I’m also aware that what feeds me is being connected to them. Connected via the internet. Even as I wander off into my lesser traveled trails in the woods.