The Art of Keeping Your
Friendships Alive
I just found this article I had written for our local paper when I lived on Padre Island. I still think it holds true but need to revise to fit our Austin life. I sure miss all our peeps down on the Coast!
Timeless sayings;
“When things calm down, let’s do lunch” or “We are so
busy, we don’t have time for anything!”
We have time for whatever we
want to have time for. Those lunches with friends or family
barbeques we talk up with one another, don’t happen as much as we
all would like or need. Communication, support and plain old
friendship in the everyday are lacking in our hustle bustle lives.
How do we make this work with different schedules and family
routines? I think the answer lies in adding the people you really
want around you, into your daily life. Figuring out how to do life
with them.
This is natural and easy with family
members. I don’t worry about my guest bathroom (or in my case the
kid/guest bathroom) when my sister stops by. But, my sister doesn’t
stop by, because she doesn’t live here. The anxiety over a clean
house and perfect appetizers make including other people in our lives
a bit tricky.
Because many of
us out here on the island live away from close relatives, the need
for friendship is vital to our wellbeing. Wouldn’t it be nice to
know that on Wednesdays your favorite friends were coming over with
food, no matter what? Or, that Fridays are always cookout nights
with neighbors. Once we get over “My house needs to look a certain
way and my schedule needs to be totally cleared in order to have
guests for dinner”, life will get a lot more fun.
Don’t let the carpool line be the
only time you see your friends! Embrace sharing a meal with
another family. Let the kids destroy the bedrooms while the adults
laugh. When all is said and done, the reprieve each person receives
from relaxing and being with others is priceless.
Life on the island lends itself to
sharing life with one another because we are all a hop, skip and
maybe a bike ride away from one another. Therefore, don’t get
stuck every night within the walls of your house in front of your
television. Eat together, share; let others into your every day.
More than a Guys Fishing Trip or a
Girls Shopping Weekend, it would be therapeutic for us all to witness
other peoples’ messy kitchens and unsparkly bathrooms and share a
meal. Instead of saying, “It’s been so crazy; when everything
settles down we need to catch up.” How about, “Life is sure
crazy, can’t wait to see you Tuesday and hang out with your
family!”
Keep on Keeping on, the
Beauty is in the Simple Every Day…
Sunny C. Reed
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