💭 On my mind
This post from April Little has been stuck in my mind lately:
And it seems like we get the word “friend” mixed up a bit, myself included.
The other day, I called someone my friend and I couldn’t remember their last name. 🤦♀️
Is that when is someone an acquaintance?
Someone I networked with once — is that just a “connection?”
I wouldn’t have called the girls in the grade above me in high school who were kinda mean to me friends, but Facebook called them such.
Is everyone just a friend because Facebook said so?
When we have a name for our relationship with someone, we can probably learn what to expect from them. Sure, colleagues can become friends, friends can become acquaintances, and clients can become lovers — hey, I’ve seen it happen!
I’ve been lucky in my life to experience a lot of different types of friendships, yet I’ve never been someone who has had the same best friend for years and years. It’s taken me a long time to get okay with that and find gratitude in the relationships that I do have in any given season.
As I’ve moved through the last few months filled with emotions, trauma, and unknowns, I found myself leaning heavily on friends for support. I started to understand what it really means to be a friend. The more I think about it — it’s not really what it means to be a friend, but it’s creating my own definition of what friendship is.
What kind of friend do I want to to be? How do I want to make people feel? How do I want to feel in friendship?
So I created this little list — How to Be a Friend. It’s not a rule book or a check list. Just things that I’ve experienced or done in friendship that I want more of. It’s not exhaustive, in fact, it’ll probably just get bigger and bigger. How exciting is that?! That we all get to continue to experience friendships and what they have to offer. That new people will enter our lives and they’ll show us something new about friendship.
How to be a friend
I’m curious — what would you add to the list?
Thank you to all the friends who have helped me create this definition and shown me friendship not only over the last few months, but for the past 32 years of my life. I love you all. 🫶
📍 Things to click on
🌴 Need some travel inspiration? Follow my friend Michelle, aka @livelikeitstheweekend. She has awesome guides for CA (and beyond!) and takes beautiful photos.
🤣 Probably my most popular LinkedIn post from the last month.
🍝 Made this super easy and delicious one pan gnocchi dish for dinner the other night and would definitely recommend.
🎧 Music to your ears
I was recently introduced to a local Jacksonville artist, Babe Honey. I also had the joy of hearing her play a few songs live last night! What a treat. Easy breezy listening with lyrics that stir something in me, especially this song.
And here’s the OG ümlauts playlist.
Your friend, acquaintance, classmate, colleague, sibling, daughter, or partner…,
Zoë
P.S. Don’t forget you can subscribe to weekly meditations + journal prompts, aka The Weekly Dots, here.
Here’s this week’s:
Lucky to call you friend, friend!
"Buy gifts and send cards just because" is my FAVE — I love showing love through card-making.
I'd also add "Don't be afraid to have hard, messy, emotional conversations with them."
My truest friends aren't afraid to call me on my sh*t!