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Welcome to week three of my seven-week journey to regrasping my sanity in the civilized woods. This week, I won’t bore you with scores on walking and housework. The first two phases of the plan have reached a steady state. Instead, the focus is on re-engaging with the world outside home and work.

As I mentioned in week one, I live in a bit of geographical anomaly. At least twenty minutes from everywhere. The twenty-minute radius applies only to errands though. Groceries, Target, Walmart, the usual. The radius for a change in scenery beyond that is at least an hour. And escaping the web of food chains is quite a feat in rural America.

Luckily, small town America offers an escape to those of us who want to eat something someone five hundred miles away isn’t eating as well, sitting at the same table in a twin building. I no longer think of food chains as restaurants. But more like parallel universes. The person eating the same thing as I am, five hundred miles away, could just be a different version of me.

But that’s neither here nor there. Bottom line. I missed my friends! As creative as my imagination can be at conjuring up stories for me to write and publish, I never wanted to cross the line from having an imagination to living in one. I wanted to see my friends.

Thankfully, they wanted to see me too! As it happens when you live too far from the people you want to meet regularly, life gets in the way and before you know it months pass without seeing each other. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. I had to decide how busy I really wanted to be, and, in the end, I decided I was not too busy to see my friends.

Coincidentally, two social engagements had already been scheduled by the time I started this journey. Thanks to social media, I reconnected with an old friend from college who happens to live in the same area as my other friends. Two weeks ago, we met for dinner at a local Italian restaurant midway for us both. If that friend is reading this, I can’t wait to see you again.

In last week’s post, I mentioned potentially burning hundreds of calories over Thanksgiving dinner and lively conversation with dear friends. This week, I met one of those friends for lunch at a local place we both loved and plan to visit again. This completes phase three of the plan. Socialization with people I care about and whose company I enjoy.

My first major lesson in the journey is this: A connection with other human beings is just as important as the connection you develop with yourself. As much as my husband and I enjoy our life in the woods, we appreciate the diversity of interaction we have in our lives. Being locked away to finish my book was helpful, but a face-to-face conversation is simply therapeutic.

Disclaimer: This content is neither advice nor instruction, medical or otherwise.