I just got off the phone with an old friend from way back in the day. It had been at least 6 months since we last caught up. We each gave the run down on life: family, kids, health, job, etc. All the normal stats that we wanted to hear about in each others lives. Children are growing up (hers that is -just to clarify), jobs are as stressful as ever and we are now to the age where we have to update on surgeries and health complications -yikes!
Life keeps on keeping on.
Then we stumbled onto an interesting conversation (not to say that the other stuff wasn't interesting... but this had a different kind of meaning to me).
We began to talk about all the old friends we had in common. We gave each other updates on the ones we still kept in contact with and then we started to hit on something else. We slowly drifted into talking about the friends that had fallen out of touch with us (or maybe we had fallen out of touch with them... who could really keep track?).
A slight tone of sadness loomed over the conversation. Perhaps it was hurt feelings or envy for the life where you don't get hurt when friends don't reply, nevertheless, there was sadness in the conversation. There was hurt in losing friendship. We debated on why it was that we lost touch with friends or better yet, why friends lost touch with us. We finally gave reasons to appease our sadness:
I know life is busy.
We all have our own lives now.
Well, we can't do everything in life.
It's all about priorities.
Seasons. There are seasons of friendship.
We finished the call by encouraging each other and reminding each other that, while it had been a while since our last catch up, we still appreciated each other's friendship.
I guess I sit here reflecting on the phone call with a certain sadness and longing to enjoy "the good ole days", but honestly, more than that, I miss the days when people were important.
-More important than a list of things that need to get done.
-More important than uploading cool pics to Facebook (I am very guilty!).
-More important than a cool Netflix show (me + guilty = a lot of wasted hours).
-More important than texting (I often count that as "keeping in touch").
-More important than white noise busyness.
-More important than -fill in the blank-
I can't tell if it is just my season of life, our ever changing culture, our need to dull the pain of stillness and loneliness or what, but I seriously miss the days when busyness wasn't an excuse and the need for people was real.
I can't be alone in this, am I? Do you feel this? ...This insanity called life that overtakes what really matters most.
Even still, it's easy to write a rant post and to go off on all the things that are wrong with this world, so instead, I will end with this.
I tell my students: WE are the change. YOU have the power to make a difference. And so I say to myself and everyone out there in blog world:
Let's be the difference.
Let's live in a way where people are important.
Where we see our friends face to face, where we carve out time to laugh and cry with the ones we love, Where we reply to the sweet messages we've been meaning to reply to.
Where we see people before we see our 'to do list'.
Where we follow up and make time.
Let's live like people matter.
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