I’ve been reflecting on a theme that’s been recurring in my life for the past several months. I’m sure you’ve heard of this exercise before: At the start of the new year, you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself during the year. It could be a word such as love, discover, create, or something along a similar vein. But although I’ve always loved the idea of this exercise, I’ve never been able to pick a single word I could commit to for a whole year.
I’ve come to the conclusion that for 2009, the following word chose me instead: RECONNECT
Once I started paying close attention, I discovered that the theme of “reconnecting” has been coming up over and over again in my life, mainly in the form of old friends.
In the past several months, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up with countless friends that I’d either lost touch with, or hadn’t seen in way too many years. I estimate that since January, I’ve reconnected with at least 15 friends!
And you know what? It’s been damn good for my soul to hang out with people who have known me since forever.
Sure, there was often apprehension at first: Will they have changed? Will I have changed? Will we still have anything in common? Will we have anything to say to each other? Will it be awkward?
And in every case, I’ve come away thinking “We should have done this a long time ago. I never realized how much I missed {insert name here}.”
And so I’m trying to make a conscious effort to reach out to long-time friends and spend time with them. Not always an easy thing for a solitary person.
But for the first time in a long, long time, I feel really good – physically, mentally and emotionally. I’m convinced my friends have lots to do with this.
And it shows – in the past week, I’ve have no less than three people tell me that I look really good and seem really happy. Wow.
Papermusings 