time to talk

I'm watching increasingly more TV - it's now a ritual for me and my girly to bond over something in the hour before she goes to bed. Escape to the country has been the choice this week. This means I've seen adverts for the brilliant "time to talk" campaign peaking yesterday. A simple enough idea, that we all need to talk about how we are feeling, and set up more opportunities to listen, in order to reduce the isolation of the 1 in 4 of us who experience mental health issues.
I've so far only managed to watch a third of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT5X6NIJR88
and so far the only suggestion I've heard for us to grow empathic communities is to talk to strangers. I do this all the time - presumably learned from watching my Dad - and know that at least one of my offspring is following suit. Giving people space to share is a big part of who I am. Yesterday I realised I could tweak my life a little to enable that to happen more - I was dashing to work and realised that if I'd left 15 mins earlier, I could have had proper conversations with those I passed, instead of just the hurried hellos. Hopefully there will be time after my meeting today to head over to the supermarket without running, and so I will get to hear from a few folk as to how they are doing. The rain may scupper that tho, in which case I'll endeavour to try the person who was in last time I attempted a visit. This week I finally made it to the home of someone who has been inviting me over for ages. I was blown away by the way they have decorated their house - until we make the time, we just don't make the discoveries!
Yesterday was also the day my husband chatted with his solicitor, over a year after I had the same conversation with mine. We're now set to meet on Sunday to talk figures - he thinks this should be simple and I really hope it is - this particular conversation has been hanging over me for three and a half years now and it will be good to have it.
Whatever today holds for you, I'd encourage you to find time to talk, and to listen, with at least one person you usually wouldn't. I hope it holds unexpected delight :D