I watched the Kennedy Centers Honours last night. One of the honourees was Oprah Winfrey. Sydney Poitier got up to speak about Oprah. He started off by saying, “there are 500 million friends on facebook, but I am sure that none of them are friends like Oprah”.

That statement actually has many different meanings to me.

Last summer I decided to reduce my friend list on facebook. I had 384 ‘friends’ at one point earlier this year. All that means is that at some points in my life I knew these people. Whether it was from school days, or BBYO days, or work, or clients or friends of friends of friends. Do I really KNOW 384 people? Do I correspond with 384 people?

What is a friend? There are several different meanings when I googled the definition:
– a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard.
– a person who gives assistance; patron; supporter
– a person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile

Last night I received an email from someone that had actually been removed from my list in the summer. It was a brutal attack on me, on the kind of person I am and that it was ‘rude, cruel and mean spirited’. This is someone that was once a ‘friend’ of mine on facebook. Is that someone who knows me? Those three words, rude, cruel and mean spirited couldn’t be farther away from the real person that I am. This was someone I knew when I was about 14 years old, and have only bumped into this person a few times in my adult life. Does this person fall into the definition of “friend”? I don’t think so.

And on the TOTAL opposite spectrum, today I received an email from a friend that talked about how she thinks of me often and enjoys reading my updates and how they are happy and positive. She ended the email with, ‘you kinda inspire me Lisa’. Those five words meant so much to me I started to cry. I want to be someone that inspires others.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller

This may be cliche, and ‘so 80’s’ but really take something from that when you decide what kind of person you going to be each day you wake up.

Are you going to volunteer your time for a good cause – a charity, helping save a friend’s life, helping save a stranger’s life, giving up your seat on the bus for an elder person.
Are you going to actually stop and say hello to someone you were once friends with in the mall, and maybe reconnect and have lunch with that person and realize that as we get older, maybe you can be friends again in this time in your life.
Are you going to accept the invitation to hang out with someone, even when your life is busy and maybe you have to ask someone to watch over your kids.

Be inspiring, make a difference.

Happy New Year friends….may 2011 bring you good health and happiness to all of those in your lives.