A few months ago, I read an article in The Atlantic Daily about why it’s crucial to keep friendships at the top of our “to-do” list.

Mark Leibovich, their staff writer, wrote about a time he heard a song by a Grammy-winning artist and impulsively reached out to a friend he hadn’t seen since the pandemic, as they had previously discussed this person’s well-known dislike of dogs.

He said, “Great laughter ensued on both ends, and she thanked me for getting in touch.”

He concluded, “The exchange took less than a minute. The joy lasted longer.“

Yes to creating joy whenever and however we can.

You may agree in theory, but it can be challenging to do in reality.

Many of us are going, going, going from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed.

So it’s no surprise that friendships fall by the wayside.

But you’ve probably heard about the study from Harvard that reports after 85 years of research:

“The people who were happiest, who stayed healthiest, and who lived the longest were the people who had the warmest connections with others.”

Which is why I’m adopting this “I was just thinking of you” approach to staying in touch with people I care about.

Oftentimes, we think every connection needs to be a LONG phone call to report all that has happened since the last time we talked.

That assumption becomes a barrier to entry because – who has time for an hour-long phone call?

But we all have 2 minutes.

And those two minutes are a great way to “keep our friendships in repair” instead of ghosting the people we care about.