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A surfer beautifully illustrated the transformative power of two simple words

Photo by Silas Baisch on Unsplash

It's easy to forget in the midst of our seemingly intractable divides, but human beings need each other. Truly.

We are social creatures, of course, but our need for human connection goes beyond family bonds and friendship and social stimulation. In times of distress especially, the simple, purposeful presence of another person can be powerfully transformative—both emotionally and physiologically.

Ryan Kuja, a surfer who also happens to be a trained therapist and theologian, shared a beautiful post that illustrates this fundamental truth.

Kuja wrote:

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Why the distance between Chicago and Colombia is no obstacle for this grandma and granddaughter

Courtesy of Quinn Hendershot
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Quinn Hendershot and her grandma have always been super close. She's lived nearby in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois for Hendershot's entire life. When she was 13 and her father suffered a brain stem stroke, her grandma moved in with her family to help take care of everyone. Unsurprisingly, Hendershot feels incredibly connected to her.

Even when they weren't living under the same roof, Hendershot got to visit with her grandma regularly while she was growing up, and that didn't change when she became a young woman and was preparing to go off to graduate school.

"When I spend time with her, we do a lot of cooking (she loves to feed me!), as well as running errands together since she can't drive," says Hendershot.

Last year, however, Hendershot's grandma built a house in Colombia and moved there semi-permanently. She was born in Colombia and lived there until she was 17, so she still has a lot of family there whom she wants to reconnect with and help look after.

"My grandma grew up on a farm, and has always wanted to live somewhere where she could keep farm animals like chickens and donkeys," explains Hendershot. "It's a lot cheaper and easier to build houses in Colombia, so when she saved up enough money to build a house there, she bought a plot of land in the country and started building."

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For military families, photo sharing is a vital lifeline to family connection

Evey Koen
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When you marry into the military, you know you're signing up for a life of occasional-to-frequent separation. Not only are service members sent around the globe during deployment, but they also attend training schools leading up to missions, which can mean months away from their loved ones.

While we often recognize the sacrifices soldiers make with their service, it's easy to overlook the sacrifices their spouses and children make as well. When your significant other is gone for months at a time, maintaining a relationship gets complicated. And when a parent is gone for months at a time, you have to come up with creative ways to stay connected as a family.

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One grandmother has found a way to help her daughter out from miles away.

This tech-savvy grandma can tell you all about AutoRap and JibJab.

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For Lisa Carpenter, the day her daughter announced her pregnancy was both amazing and heartbreaking.

Lisa was thrilled to become a grandmother and wanted to be in her grandson's life — but her daughter lived more than 800 miles away.  

"They had our first grandson [Brayden] in 2008," Lisa says, "which was fabulous news when they announced the pregnancy but horribly hard on my heart as I simply could not comprehend how I would survive as a long-distance grandma."

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