Have you ever been blue?  Not depressed (you can still get up and go to work).  Just blue?  Everything seems routine, boring, dull?   Some women avoid the feelings by working harder or later in the evening.  Or, by eating, or numbing themselves with television, or losing themselves in a good book.  Anything to pass the time until either you feel better or you have to get to work.  

Lorraine tells an interesting story: 

“When I’m down, I know if I could go out with a girlfriend, I’d feel better.  But,  the last thing I feel like doing when I’m so down, is picking up the phone and risking getting an answering machine.  Or a friend saying, “Sorry, I’m just running out; I’ll call you later.”   The pain of forcing myself to make the effort and then not having some one there, at times, is just too great.  

“When I’m down, I know if I could go out with a girlfriend, I’d feel better.  But,  the last thing I feel like doing when I’m so down, is picking up the phone and risking getting an answering machine.  Or a friend saying, “Sorry, I’m just running out; I’ll call you later.”   The pain of forcing myself to make the effort and then not having some one there, at times, is just too great.       

“But, about a month ago, about 6:00 on a Friday evening, I mustered the energy (the nerve?) to call Betsy.  After all, married women are always busy, especially on weekends.  I was surprised to hear her voice, and more surprised she had time to talk.  (I always ask that first thing.)  But when I suggested getting together this weekend, I was nearly crushed by her very understandable explanation why she wasn’t available.

“But then something wonderful happened. We talked for an hour!  It was only the next day before I realized I had gone to “tea” with Betsy – from the comfort of our own homes.

“Since then, I’ve added lunch with friends who live hundreds of miles away.”

Being blue is normal.  But, as Lorraine discovered, the telephone can be one of the things that get you feeling better. 

Like the old telephone company says, “Reach out and,” instead of touch someone,  “Reach out and call a girlfriend.”