Hope this experience is one you relate to & helps you:
I have diff groups of friends that I keep in touch w from diff times in my life: going all the way back to elementary school – then HS, college, diff cities I lived in for sports. Some groups are large…some small. Each their own unique personality/blend.
This one “group” of friends & I were texting the other nt. I have group in quotes bc it’s just 3 of us: 2 cousins who grew up best friends, & me. They were season tickets holders of mine at one of the teams I worked for, & our passion for the team/being arnd the same age, similar interests, brought us together.
One cousin’s now married, just had their 2nd child, moved to a new city, & is moving to a new house. The other cousin’s single, lives abt 1,000 miles south of the first cousin, & is renting an apt.
Amidst giving the married cousin a hard time on a text thread (as friends do), I shared how we hadn’t heard from him in a while. The single cousin went on to write to our group – one that’s usually abt joking arnd, abt sports, etc., how absolutely hurt he was that the married cousin had become so distant. Never checks in. Not on this thread, not alone on a text, not a call here/there on holidays. It was a real outpouring you could tell had built up.
Sadly, maybe not w my cousins…but w friends – I know this feeling all too well. I get it: ppl get busy w their fams. Their work. Then months go by & we don’t hear from them. Not even a text. And now WE wonder – do THEY even care abt US, to where we should even reach out? Do we even matter to them? This has happened in some of my closest friendships/relationships…& time passes, & distance grows.
All we want to hear from each other is: “I’ve been thinking about you.”
That’s all it takes – a simple text. A text is not hard no matter how busy life gets.
Ironically, my friend Dave who’s one of my 3 who passed tragically – his wife wrote me today (just before this post): found this pic (slide➡️ he’s the tan one ;)), of you, Dave & your other friend & wanted to send. W that text (tho now remarried w kids) she said: “I’ve been thinking about you.” That’s all it takes.