It feels soooo good now that we can finally meet everyone again in social situations.
A year without parties, social gatherings, family celebrations and hangouts has left me yearning for connection again with my friends and family, and I’m super excited that we’ll be hosting parties again at the ALG Collective very soon.
Now that social gatherings are opening up again, it’s got me thinking about ways in which we can reconnect with old, new, distant, and close friendships.
Here are some ideas I’ve been working on in the last couple of months as we slowly get back to being able to meet up with friends again:
Reaching out
I’m trying to make an extra effort to reach out to people who I haven’t seen during the last year or so, including friends and family who live in different states and countries. While I still may not be able to travel to meet them all just yet, now feels like a good time to reconnect, share experiences (good or bad) about the last 15 months and arrange to meet up again.
Say ‘thank you’ for friendships we may have taken for granted
I’ve definitely been blessed with some dear friends who have made a consistent effort to check in on me over the last year, and as I live alone I can’t fully say how much I have appreciated these friends! I’m making an extra effort to extend special gratitude to these friends, whether it’s a handwritten note or a token gesture as a way to say ‘thanks.’
My ‘HUGS’ have been a really popular gift of late as a way to say ‘thank you’ to your friends and loved ones during these tough times if you need suggestions.
Re-evaluating friendships
It’s also good to use this time to reflect on those friendships that we’ve distanced ourselves from and evaluate whether the cause was the pandemic or rather something else. Figuring out which friendships I now want to prioritize going forward and which ones I want to re-evaluate has been a surprising but necessary step as I continue to grow.
I believe that friendships need to be mutually beneficial and not one-sided or draining on one person’s emotions all the time. It should be a conversation, and it’s okay to step back and assess if someone’s monologuing; that should be reserved exclusively for villains in movies.
My glass art mural “ALL THE FEELS” is a piece which explores balance and harmony. It’s a balance of fluidity and structure; of warm, bold furls and cool, delicate depths. For me, that’s what friendships are all about too.
