Time

In the past five years I’ve lost two friendships that if you’d asked five years ago if we’d be where we are now, I’d have told you, you were out of your mind.

Time has a way of distancing us from what’s important.  But is it really time or is it us?  Both of the said friendships had a similar theme, you guessed it: time.  The first, we will call A had always been, and was always going to be long distance.  For years we’d ‘seen’ each other through the highs and lows of life and every week made time to have a three-hour catch up over the phone.  The second we’ll call B, was closer to home.  Our lives revolved around the same things, school, parties and general interests.

As we got older both A and I began exploring our careers and life got demanding, however we still made the effort to stay in touch.  A began dating, which took up much of A’s time.  A slowly began drifting, stating that there was not enough time.  I was forced to make a difficult decision, as it was clear that A was having trouble being loyal to life, career, significant other and our friendship.

B on the other hand, had become demanding of time and, was jealous of an existing friendship that I currently hold.  B was not getting their way and decided to end our friendship.

The terminations of these relationships were quite difficult to swallow as both, I assumed, were destined to be with me forever.  They were important.

There are common phrases associated with importance: that of attending to the important rather than the urgent, and the other is that we make time for things and or people that are important.

I have a laundry list of to-do’s, but know exactly what it is that I should be doing.  I’m pretty confident with my organizational skills but I’ve started thinking that maybe I’ve become a pretty good organized procrastinator.

I’m not perfect but I do keep in mind that there are things and people that are important to me and to my personal growth and I have made a conscious effort to set aside time to attend to those needs.

And just this week I cleared my busy schedule to take time to catch up with two great gal pals I haven’t seen in a while.

Yes, life is going to get busier, but we’re still in control.  We can’t turn back the clock but if we use our time wisely, we won’t miss out on what’s important.