Making Friendships Work

I've been blessed in the respect that I have a lot of friends and making friends comes fairly easy to me. I'm also blessed to have a wide variety of friends. I have friendships with people that are my age. I have a lot of friendships with people who are older than me. I have guy friends and girl friends.

I'm a lucky girl, but I've discovered that friendships take work...a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, it's always rewarding to make the effort to keep in touch and make time for friends, but sometimes it truly is work. My mom cautioned me in high school to make time for my friends. That sounded crazy then because they were who I was with if I weren't with my parents. But, as I've already alluded to, I tend to get overwhelmed with activities and general business. Unfortunately, it's so easy for me to let the little things like staying in touch slip through the cracks.

I've noticed this a lot recently. I'm usually the person that sends the cards or emails. I've never been a girl that talks a lot on the phone (my parents are still thanking their lucky stars for that!) so my favorite method of staying in touch comes from some sort of written communication. Consequently, I did get into a lot of trouble for writing notes in school. Lately, I've slipped severely in that department. This really hit home when I got an email from a friend asking me if everything was okay because she hadn't heard from me in a while. And just the other night I got to talk to a friend that I haven't talked to in months. Early this week a delightfully funny card showed up in my mailbox from a friend that hardly ever does that. Apparently I was being missed.

I talk about finding balance, but at some point I think it comes down to simply saying I will do this. Friendships are very important to me and I'm a little concerned that I've let so many people slip by (some months on end) without getting in touch or seeing how they have been. I'm ashamed by that and I've committed to rectify that situation.

For those friends that don't live close by...expect mailbox cheer soon! For those friends that are here in blogland....expect some comments. For those friends that are here close by...expect some girls' nights out. For those friends that I've let slip away totally...expect some thoughts and prayers sent your way.

While writing this whole post I've been humming that song I learned in Girl Scouts...."Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold...." How perfect!