Reconnect With Friends

We all need a ‘partner in crime’…. I mean, friends.

“A good friend is a connection to life — a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in an insane world.” — Lois Wyse.

“Time, when spent with friends, is simple yet it gives you pleasure.” — Cindy Morgan

I am an introvert. Covid has not affected me the way it has some of my more adventurous, extroverted friends. I like being on my own and creating worlds in my head as I write about them.

But one cannot live in isolation. I need my friends as much as anyone else and although I don’t relish hanging out at a packed bar (like I did in my twenties); I love a get together to just chat.

Recently, a friend and I did a day trip to a conservation area to hike and talk, swim and picnic in the fresh air. It was the perfect day with the perfect companion.

Reconnecting with those friends that uplift

This friend, that I mentioned above, I met at university. We met in a micro economics class — an elective for both of us, as we were sociology majors. We were kinda bored, but also wanted a decent grade so we toughed it out and together we passed with decent colours and had a lot of fun in the process.

We just hit it off. The fact that our birthdays are only 2 days apart and our family backgrounds (working class) are similar made for other wonderful coincidences. Over the years, we have both gone to Teacher’s College and we both love teaching children with special needs.

It always amazes me how similar we can be, even when months go by before we are able to see each other again.

Every time we get together, we just click. If you are lucky to have friends like this, cherish them, they don’t come around very often time.

Reconnect to those friends who need the social element to their lives

Some friends have not done so well during Covid. One friend’s family life is in a bad place and she needs someone to talk to.

I’ve been trying to keep the lines of communication open. I may have to do a drop in with tea and make her come out for a walk with me… sans children or dreadful husband. (I will admit I started to write dead…. Freudian slip…. I’ve never liked the idiot.)

She is a giver and I think she gives too much of herself. I need to find a way to reconnect and bring her some comfort and support. I hate feeling like I have abandoned her.

Zoom has been great, but nothing beats in person connection

Many of my writing friends are still meeting in the Zoom universe. That’s great. The connection is still there, and it is still vital, but I am looking forward to meeting up and writing together in person. There is a real energy that Zoom and Google Meet cannot transmit and I miss it.

One problem is that many of the independent coffee shops we used to hang out at are either closed or keeping hours that do not jive with an evening get together. (Who closes at 3 pm! I don’t start drinking coffee until then.)

I have been told some of Kitchener Waterloo’s NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) events will be in person this year and I am so pleased. I doubt the Guelph group will do any as the two Municipal Liaisons who run the events are immune challenged. But some in person events are better than none. NaNoWriMo is all about the writing (50K words of a novel in a month), but it is also about the social and getting together with others just as crazy as you are for want to do this. (I have been doing NaNoWriMo since 2012)

So where do you go from here?

Slowly, things are opening up. Practice safe contact, but don’t neglect your friends. They need you as much as you need them.

So how can you re-connect with your friends and loved ones? Give this some serious consideration, then get to it.

Friendship, like love, makes the world a better place. Stay connected.

I’d love to hear how you’re are doing and what friends you have gotten together with and what kinds of things you have done.


Notes ▼

This was originally posted here: https://medium.com/@carolynlukas/reconnect-with-friends-c3c141288a4e
It is part of a series on Getting Unstuck and Re-Igniting Your Creative Spark.