With all of the recent life changes and the move to Florida, there are lost friends and now- found friends. Sure, I’ll miss those guys and girls in Tulsa, Houston, Birmingham, and Joplin, but for the past few weeks here in Florida, we’ve been greeted and welcomed by potential new friends.

It helps that we’ve ingratiated ourselves by winning group trivia with our correct answers for two weeks in a row. We graciously accepted an invitation to a comedy show the next evening and enjoyed cocktails and karaoke afterwards.

For the past few decades, the city of Cape Coral has a program simply called the “New Residents Club” due to the influx of people flocking to the island. With various ages and from all parts of the world, the groups are diverse and seem to keep it interesting.

And that is the point of this post- interest. In the past, I’ve noticed that I am fully engaged in another’s conversation and I always ask follow-up questions but then noticed it was seldom returned. I am happy to share my interests, but feel hesitant out of respect for them and their time, always afraid I am boasting too much, so I keep my answers concise and wonder why I am not receiving the same courtesy from them.

It wasn’t them, it was me. So I began to ask myself, “Have you tried to become more interesting?”

For me, to be “interest-ing”, is to be curious and attentive, and to practice “the continual projection of interest.”

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To put it more simply: If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested.

I want to be someone worthy of following and capturing interest from others. And so it is time for me to embrace some activities and hobbies of personal interest, (there’s that word again) to assist in becoming more interesting.

So, I’ve picked up the ukulele again

Kicked off the Palm Sunday photo project

Acquired a bicycle and will train with cycling this week

Fitness training and nutrition

Pickleball

Disc golf

Ultimate frisbee

Fishing in the canal behind the house (need a pole soon because the fish are jumping)

Bocce

Shuffleboard

Digital photography/hybrid sketching and painting

An armchair expert on palm trees

Finally, I will work on being an interesting person other people want to be around and are willing to open doors for. There are many roads to becoming an interesting person, but they all involve developing my curiosity and my desire to know and understand — myself, others, the world around me. I can commit to asking two people a day an open-ended question about themselves and really listening to their responses and then I can share my information and connections freely.

Interesting.