The Art of Cultivation
Several months ago, one of my friend's mothers passed away. I didn't even know she had been sick. It doesn't matter that the illness came on suddenly and everything happened very quickly, I feel like if I were better at keeping up with my friends, I would have known.
With that being said, I know I'm horrible at keeping up with people. A week can pass before I realize I haven't talked to my mom, via phone call, text or even Facebook. It's not that I don't care or want to know what's going on in the lives of the people I care about; I just get really focused on work and then go home and want nothing more than to take a bubble bath, eat and go to bed.
So I'm challenging myself to do a better job at being a good friend. I know that true friends don't have to see or talk to each other every day for their friendships to last, but I'm making a commitment to text or call my 3 closest friends at least once a week. For friends that I've made through work who've now moved away, I'm challenging myself to communicate with them in some way at least once a month. For close family, like my parents and brother, every other day.
"A
good friend is a connection to life — a tie to the past, a road to the
future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world."
~Lois Wyse
1 comments
Every night when I put the 11 o'clock newscast to bed, I went directly to the Subway Sub Shop (a brand new franchise back then) and bought a foot long sandwich. All I wanted to do was get back to my apartment, eat my sub, drink some beer and watch late night television. I'd sleep in late the next day, have lunch, watch my station's noon cast to get an idea of which stories we were covering and start gearing up for the challenge of producing the 6 and 11 again. My mother constantly complained that I didn't stay in touch with her enough. Obviously you know what a producer's life is like and how and why this benign neglect can happen.
ReplyDeleteI believe blog friends are real friends, Ashton. I've been following you for a very long time. You make my day when you visit my blog and leave a comment. If you will make an effort to visit more often in the future I will gladly reciprocate. Thank you!