Time for Friends

Time.  It fills up so fast.  Or so everyone seems to say.  I don't understand how that happens.  I sometimes ask people if they want to hang out and suggest a day.  They say no, sorry, that day doesn't work for me.  I say ok, no problem, when is a good time for you?  They kind of squirm and sigh and say I don't know, my time is pretty booked from here on out. 

...What?  You don't even know when you will have any time for me next?  That's not good.

I don't know about you, but I just can't live that way.  Rejecting time with friends because you are too busy?  That's bad enough.  And you certainly won't be in a position to help someone if they really need it.  You've already been written off as not having time for them.

Time by yourself and your immediate family is very important, to be sure.  To me, that's the default.  If nothing else is going on, which usually it's not, then we'll spend time together or alone.  That's great.  But if someone else wants to hang out, I will absolutely make it a priority to spend some time with them.  And I try to ask people if they want to come over every chance I get.  Unfortunately since everyone's so busy it's hard to make that work as often as I would like.  

How do people get so busy?  I still don't understand this.  I don't think it's intentional.  Maybe what happens is that you just get into a routine.  You go home and play with your kids and eat dinner and watch your shows and that's that.  It's hard to schedule time with someone else to intrude into there for some reason.  Maybe we don't want to let people intrude into that more personal time.  Seems like a missed opportunity to me.

Weekends seem to fill up with sports, hobbies, volunteer work, and some small time with friends. It's almost like when you're on vacation and you want to schedule every minute with good stuff so you don't waste any time or something.  That is crazy too.

Maybe it's just me, but I never really had a problem with finding time.  Maybe the occasional weekend will fill up with stuff, but that's pretty rare.  Even a whole day filling up is rare.  Weekends, weekdays, doesn't matter, I will move my schedule around to make space for you.  You are worth it.  Time with friends is more important to me than just about anything else.  Hobbies, games, work that needs done, all that gets pushed to the wayside.  If you can't do that, if there's just too much stuff to get done, well, stop doing so much! Your schedule is too full.  There are more important things you're missing out on.

Actually, if something needs doing why not call a friend over to help out?  It doesn't always have to be 'fun' time with them.  Working with friends is just as rewarding.  We forget that sometimes.  Friends are not there for entertainment only, they are there to help and share with all aspects of our life.

Tear down the walls and let your friends in!