Busy lives leave little room for friendship?

Could it be the oldest excuse in the book?

“Sorry, I’m too busy ____”

a. hunting and gathering

b. washing my hair

c. doing chores around the house

Even when we have the opportunity to be social, to go out and make friends, to visit with people, to call on the phone and chat, why don’t we? It is so tempting to curl up on the couch with a good book or a British murder mystery on the telly and just veg out. Free time seems so rare that any chance I get to kick back and relax, even though I am unabashedly searching for friends, I can’t bear to rally myself to go out and about.

Is this laziness, anxiety, or actual exhaustion? I think I may know, but I would hate to admit it. I WILL recoup the missed friendship goals from September within the next few days (despite having class and a family member staying over and a billion house projects to do..not to mention earning a living)! And then, on to the October plan.

It just seems a bit of a shame that modern life is so busy and driven by everything except friendship sometimes. Sometimes maybe all we need is a little inspiration to make time for friends, but other times I think I need a swift kick in the butt – a harsh reminder that life doesn’t last forever, that for the most part future forever friends won’t come out of the woodwork searching for me, and that an hour tossing back drinks with a potential girlfriend will be much more rewarding at the end of the day than watching yet another re-run of Psych (even though I love that show altogether too much).

So here’s to the thought that even though life is busy, friends are busy, and everyone is stressed to the max, it is possibly even more important to make time for friends now than it would be if we had all the time in the world to piddle away. Busy or not, I’m going to make time for friends – it just might be the best way to be a good friend to myself.