All relationships take some effort on your part.  Stay in touch with your friends and family – make an effort to do that.  It’s really, really important!  Relationships will die if you allow them to.  This applies to friends, family members and spouses.

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Good relationships take hard work. Sustaining a relationship over years is not for the faint of heart. All relationships – friends, family, and spouse – can be joyful, life affirming, satisfying, and fun – but the tradeoff is that it takes work. Doing well at your career takes work. So does staying in shape. Why shouldn’t having a good relationship take work, too?

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How many times have you said:

“I need to call Mom”

“I wonder what my sister is up to?”

“It’s been too long since I’ve seen Lesa”

“How long has it been since I had a really good conversation with my uncle?” 

“It’s time to have a date night with my spouse”

“It’s time to spend some quality time with my kids” 

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We make time for what’s important in our lives. Sometimes it’s work, sometimes it’s play. Many of us take for granted that we still have a mom, dad or grandparent around that we can call, or that our spouse still wants to go have a date night. 

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And don’t get me started on how fast kids grow up and leave. 

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Stay in touch. And I don’t mean by “liking” a Facebook or Instagram post. It’s good to be able to see what our loved ones are up to, but to really be in a relationship means giving a little of your time to stay connected, especially in this time when being connected in person is so much harder. 

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A quick phone call, a text message, or even one of those “old fashioned” greeting cards are all an easy way to reach out and say “You’re important to me, I love you, and I wanted you to know.” 

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Don’t take them for granted. Our favorite old lady won’t be around forever and I for one will make sure that I check in every chance I get and let her know how important she is to me and that I love her. 

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I love you, Mom. This Thanksgiving and always, I’m grateful for all you’ve done for me and all the love you still give.