Relationships are beyond a Zoom room, Facebook post, Instagram status. So many people ask me about their "relationship status" with someone else and their “thoughts” regarding the other person involved. Did you know that our relationship with the “other” person has absolutely nothing to do with that other person? It is what we think about the other person, and it shows up in the slightest ways. Think about that. Shocker. How you think about the other person in a relationship is how you will behave. So, in any relationship, ask yourself, “who am I going to call first with the news?" My husband and I talk about this all the time. We call this "the call” game.

At the beginning of 2021 we wrote a "family manifesto" and behind it there was a sentence that went something like, “we want to be the people our kids know will always pick up the phone when they call." Pick up the phone when they call. This sounds like a strange request nowadays, but do you pick up your phone to family and friends? Or do you let it go to voicemail and text them back? Can people depend on you to pick up your phone? My friends and family know that I pick up the phone.

We all have "friends" and some family that don’t pick up the phone. They have become “busy” yet, they are always on it. In the back of my mind, I wonder about my relationship with them. When I’m very secure in my relationship, I keep calling, texting, calling, texting, (leaving a very short voicemail because I’m like that.) When they call back, they wonder if something is wrong, because I’ve been calling like bananas. Or, I don’t call back, leave a voicemail, text, because I have let our relationship slip away too. Have we slowly become a society to let our phone go to voicemail and watch for the text? Or do we just text them before we call? I want to keep the relationship with our kids, family, and friends to a point that calling isn’t an emergency. It’s nice to just talk. We still do that in 2021.

Call me! I'll pick up! Until next time, remember - Fail Big!