How many times have you said to someone else “Oh yes. Let’s stay in touch!” and never do? It happens too often that we’re at a reunion, funeral, party, grocery store and you meet up with someone for the first time in a long time. You really enjoyed visiting with them so much; you plan to stay in touch. Information is exchanged and you go on your way.
In most of these situations, there is no more contact unless someone dies and then you’re brought back together again. This is not the best circumstances to have a reunion. At the time, you had good intentions to stay in touch but got caught up in the daily routine of life and you failed to pick up the phone or send off a quick email.
I was this way with my immediate family. We would meet up once or twice a year for the holidays and really enjoyed ourselves. Since we all lived within 1 hour of each other, we all decided we would commit to meeting once every 6 weeks. There were three different families between my brother, sister and my family so the plan was to rotate which families to host the gathering and we would schedule the date while we were all together. This way, the date was set in advance so nothing should come up to change your plans.
We did this for about two years. It was very easy. When we got together, we planned to eat a meal that was inexpensive and we mostly just visited. Our children played with each other enabling the bond of cousins to grow. I am very glad I did this. Prior to our routine visits, I was not very close to either of my siblings. Now I have developed a bond that will last forever. I’m very glad I did this. The second year of meeting, my brother passed away suddenly at the age of 40. No one anticipated this to happen. I was so grateful for the opportunity to get to know him as an adult and I cherish all of the times we spent together.
I know most of you don’t have the close proximity of your family to be able to do this. You could do the same thing just with less frequency.
Something even easier than meeting frequently is to actually send that email to keep in touch. Send one telling them what a good time you had and how things are going for you. Ask them for an update on their life to prompt a response from them. If you have to, put it on your calendar every so often to drop your friends or family a quick email just to say hello. It means a lot to that person and you’re doing your due diligence to keep the friendship going.
Another alternative is to call or email the person and tell them you’d like to meet them for lunch or dinner one day. Plan a date that’s good for both of you and your chances for each of you actually making the date are high. I did this with a friend I used to work with. We both committed time out of our weekends to meet and in the end, we were glad that we did.
This is all hard to do when you have your immediate family to take care of especially if you have children. Cooking dinner, cleaning the house, helping with homework and breaking up fights are all a part of your life and the most important. Your family can do without you for a couple of hours if you want to go see a friend every once in a while. If you want to go visit family, they would benefit by going with you.
Try making plans or sending an email today. Tell me how it goes. I’d love to hear your success stories. Trust me, this really works and you’ll be so glad you did.
