#2 - Reconnect with your friends

Many of us have spent the past number of years focusing on our careers or raising a family... or both. Occasionally thoughts of a friend you haven't seen in what seems like AGES pop into your head and you make a mental reminder to give them a call or send them an email, only to then be distracted by the everyday happenings of life that take up whatever little precious time you have left over... and so those intentions of reconnecting become afterthoughts that eventually die of suffocation in your brain's overstuffed 'to-do-someday' filing cabinet... and then the weeks pass, the months... and more months...

What was my excuse for those friends I hadn't seen in ages? Certainly being out of the country for 5 months didn't help, but what about the months preceding that? That I was tied up in wedding planning by night and work-o-holism by day?!? Or that I was perpetually stressed at the prospect of trying to find a smidgen of time to squeeze in certain other necessities of life like laundry, cleaning, grocery shopping... eating!.. sleeping!?!? Time was passing and there didn't seem to be any of it left-over for anything else... not even my friends.

Well that all changed when I returned from the U.S. and made a conscious effort to start reconnecting.

This past Thursday, I got together with a few friends in the busy hub of downtown Toronto. And in the 5 months that I was out of the country, I was utterly amazed at how all of their lives had changed somehow while I was away. My one girlfriend, who was hosting the evening in her beautiful new home (newsflash #1), got married (newsflash #2) in November shortly after moving into their new pad and now has a bun in the oven! (newsflash #3); another girlfriend bought and moved into a condo in December (newsflash #4) and is co-habituating (newsflash #5) with a rekindled flame (newsflash #6); another friend-couple came by with their precious baby girl who's a cute bundle of 3 months already (newsflash #7)! Wow! I started to wonder what else might be new with some of the other friends I hadn't seen or spoken to in a long time and had they been experiencing the same joi de vivre? Were any going through difficulties? Had any suffered personal set-backs of any kind? What else was I missing out on or unaware of???

While time is a precious commodity that needs to be handled, or juggled, with precision and care... it comes as fast as it goes. And like everything else that we have to 'schedule' and make time for in life, we need to find some of it for our valuable friends too. Don't underestimate the power of friendship. I always feel enriched after spending time with friends, and last Thursday was no exception. I went home glad that I kept my commitment and happy for having shared such a blast of an evening.

Helpful Tip:
Set a date far enough in advance, so that you can keep your schedule for that particular week relatively 'free' of other obligations. And while you may find that as the day or night of the event approaches, that familiar feeling of dread washes over you, don't bail! Go and spend time with your friends, you'll feel better for having done so after wards.