At lunch with co-workers this week, the subject of a former colleague losing her dad was mentioned.
“I should text her and say we are thinking about her,” someonesaid off-handedly. Then she removed her phone from her pocket and nodded at us.
“I am going to do it right now,” she said. The rest of us smiled.
“I’d forget otherwise,” I said.
“Me, too,” agreed someone else.
We were all in agreement that it needed to happen in that moment.
By nature, I am easily distracted. I have worked hard over years to figure out the best ways to minimize the things that take away my attention. Stopping whatever task or conversation I am in to tackle something else temporarily is often a major derailment for me.
But putting things off rarely reaps good results either.
So I am starting to stack by priority.
Checking who played “terrorist #1” in the last Liam Neesonmovie on IMDB is not worth pushing the pause button.
But reaching out to check on a friend with pending test results to say I am thinking of them?
I think a brief detour for THAT should be forgiven.
The people in front of you at any moment are very important. The spreadsheet you are trying to finish needs to be completed. You don’t need to be on your phone or laptop every moment of the day. All of these statements are true.
But this statement is true, too: Everyone deserves human empathy, sympathy and connection. Even if it comes via a text message on a tiny screen at a weird time.
So… do it now.
Quit reading this. Pull out your phone and send a text.
Maybe it says, “Sorry.” Or “Thinking about you.” Or “Wish you were here.”
Maybe it says, “I was reading some windbag on the internet who said I should tell more people I care about them.”
Just make sure it says something. And hit send.
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