Sep 2, 2020

Too busy? It might be too late tomorrow!

Two women drinking wine, 50, fabulous & finally free.com

I’m done. I’m done using “I’m busy” as an excuse for not spending time with people who are important to me. We’ve all heard the stories about why we should cherish the people we are close to because ‘they may be gone tomorrow’. The moment you hear about someone else who lost someone they care about and they share their regret with you, you may think “I should call so and so” but do you? Or do, you get busy and forget? Americans pride themselves on being “busy.” We use it as way of bragging how important we are but really it prevents us from doing what we want to do. Over the course of a few days, I learned one friend had passed away and another was in hospice and she passed a few days later. When the shock was over, I realized that I hadn’t seen my friend in months and now it was too late.   I’m wondering who else I haven’t made time for in the past year? Who else will I regret I didn’t see if I got a call tomorrow that they were gone? And for what? I have time to skim through social media at night but not to call a friend? I need to eat, why not invite someone I want to spend time with? At the end of my life, will I be proud of how clean my house is or that I told someone how important they are to me and how they have impacted my life?   I didn’t get the chance to tell my friend how she is the voice of my conscience. When I have an ethical dilemma, I ask myself “what would Lindsey tell me?” She taught me so much about the world of politics and kept me out of trouble more times than I care to admit. It meant so much to me that she would text me every year when I was at opening day of baseball season or when the Dodgers played one of her favorite baseball teams. I hope she knew how I felt.   I don’t want to only keep up with my dearest friends by reading their posts on Facebook. I want to know how they are doing, not just what their social media profile says. I want to hear the excitement in my friend’s voice when he shares the good things happening in his or her life or be there for my friend when she needs a shoulder to cry on or a hug.   I want my friendships to be about quality, not quantity. It’s about making time for what’s important, the people I care about.