As a mom, I’ve found that I want one thing I share with each kid that is just for the two of us. With Penny, it’s creating our family photo albums. With Marilee, reading before bed. I’ve waited a long time to find that one thing with William. And here it is, in the form of a 5×6 grid, three colors, and the fact that we gave him a phone for Christmas so he can play and text me his results.
Apparently tens of millions of people are now playing Wordle, the simple and surprisingly satisfying word game created last fall. I have a few friends on Twitter who have joined this crowd, and I love seeing their scores and comments on it. But I only have one person in my real life who plays every day. It’s William.
It’s a few seconds worth of connection, but it gives us this little shared bond every day that somehow spills into conversations about life and questions about the future and talking about politics and everything else.
So I guess I’m just offering this out to anyone who longs for connection with someone else—a friend, a child, a spouse. Look for one little daily or even weekly experience of shared delight. It can make a big difference.
Read more with Amy Julia:
- Small Talk: Learning From My Children About What Matters Most
- Anticipating Joy
- Favorite Books for Kids and Adults That We Read in 2021
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