{"id":8350,"date":"2023-10-25T16:42:49","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T09:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=8350"},"modified":"2023-10-25T16:42:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T09:42:49","slug":"4-ways-to-strengthen-your-friendships-every-day-even-from-afar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/?p=8350","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways To Strengthen Your Friendships Every Day (Even From Afar)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mindbodygreen-res.cloudinary.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_108,w_1500,h_843\/c_fill,w_700,h_400,g_auto,q_85,fl_lossy,f_jpg\/org\/ra6ak7ansk11c3l6j.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div end=\"false\">\n<p>Every week, my father meets with a group of about eight Trinidadian friends on Zoom, to connect and, as we Trinis say, \u201col\u2019 talk.\u201d Somehow, despite the fact that they\u2019ve been meeting like this for over a decade, I knew nothing of this gathering until recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKaren, you\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d my mom told me. \u201cSometimes I go hide in a corner and pretend I\u2019m reading a book, but mostly I\u2019m just eavesdropping on their conversation. They are constantly teasing each other and arguing and laughing and talking over each other.\u201d She shook her head. \u201cFor hours, the whole lot of them just get louder and louder, and all I can do is sit there and laugh.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow do you know these people?\u201d I asked my dad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, some of them are friends from high school,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd some of them are folks I met during my career.\u201d My dad had worked a petroleum engineer. Given the importance of the energy industry to the Trinidadian economy, he had become well-known in the country as a result.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs everyone in the group in oil and gas?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo. One is a psychiatrist. One is a doctor, and one is a dentist. There\u2019s an economist. All had very successful careers but are now all retired and have been for decades. We used to meet in person at a clubhouse called the Cosmos Club in Port-of-Spain at about 4:30 in the afternoon every Friday. We\u2019d sit at the bar, and one person would bring some street food in. I would join them every time I was back home in Trinidad, about four times a year. But then, when COVID hit and Trinidad went into lockdown, the club closed. So we began meeting on Zoom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do you guys talk about?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, it\u2019s just a lime!\u201d \u201cLime\u201d is a Trinidadian word we use to mean a \u201cgathering,\u201d but with a special emphasis on connecting with each other. \u201cAnd you know what happens in a lime,\u201d my dad continued. \u201cUsually there\u2019s food and drinks, and ol\u2019 talk. And ol\u2019 talk in Trinidad is always about a subject or two or three, often going on Concurrently.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1675549\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every week, my father meets with a group of about eight Trinidadian friends on Zoom, to connect and, as we Trinis say, \u201col\u2019 talk.\u201d Somehow, despite the fact that they\u2019ve been meeting like this for over a decade, I knew nothing of this gathering until recently. \u201cKaren, you\u2019ve never seen anything like it,\u201d my mom &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[159,55],"class_list":["post-8350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-friendship","tag-longevity"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8350\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/loudhdtv.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}