Women are: Daughters, girlfriends, sisters, mothers, lovers, wives, workers, students, caregivers and FRIENDS!
The significance and order of these roles vary according to the person and change over time. In a 24/7 society, where multi-tasking is not only expected but often demanded, it’s not surprising that even the best of female friendships sometimes get short shrift.
Friendships are prone to fray if they aren’t nurtured. So we need to find small ways to make these important relationships stick:
- Remember her birthday with a call, card or flowers
- Send her an old-fashioned postcard next time you are on vacation.
- Send her a note on pretty stationary, for no particular reason, expressing what her friendship means to you.
- Call her to wish her and her family a happy holiday.
- Acknowledge other milestones: her promotions at work, her anniversary, or her children’s birthdays.
- Don’t be vague about when you’ll see each other again. Schedule face-to-face time.
- Take a class together or join the same gym.
- Got kids? Enroll in the same Mommy and Me class.
- Don’t ever allow three months go by without any contact.
- Email her to let her know you are thinking of her.
- If you live nearby one another, find ways to coordinate chores and other things you have to do: Schedule your mammograms together, go food shopping together, take an exercise class together.
- If you live far apart, plan a girlfriend getaway each year.
- Make her your friend on MySpace or Facebook.
How to make it stick? All it takes is making friendship a priority and a little bit of creativity in re-ordering your priorities! One woman I interviewed for the Fractured Friendship Survey told me that she exercises simultaneously with her friend who lives thousands of miles away. As they both use the treadmill, they talk and motivate one another to exercise. At the same time, they remain connected across the miles.
