Social Fitness
Extroverts and Introverts: This may be a difficult prompt for both.
If you are an extrovert you may be inclined to be energized by every relationship, and if you are an introvert you may feel depleted by any relationship. But, regardless, we all know people who makes us feel good, like we belong, like we are better when we are with them.
What relationships energize you?
In our experience…
The value of a Good Conversation is that it helps us realize some things that we would rush by without noticing. Merely pausing long enough to reflect is a victory in living well.
Immediately, Libby and I started thinking of friends who mean so much to us, who have walked with us for years. We also thought of relatives who mean a lot to us.
Last week I was in Nashville and was able to have dinner with my college roommate. He was the first person I told that Libby and I wanted to get married. He was in our
wedding. He showed up the day after our first child was born and smoked a cigar with me. He came all the way to Massachusetts from North Carolina to celebrate my
ordination to be a pastor. I stayed up there and he moved out west and our contact was sporadic. But, we were instantly better people when we sat down together and we will
be more intentional about staying in touch and and enjoying each other.
As Libby and I talked we realized that that there are different types of relationships that energize us, not just the deepest. We are energized by a young couple we see at church
even though our conversations are brief. We are energized by a new family on our street with young kids. The mother seems so glad that we have noticed them and spend
time talking.
Today, Libby was on a walk around the lake in our neighborhood and as a young mother pushing a stroller passed her, she heard her say to someone on the phone, “I feel so
disconnected to my life. The people who were friends when we first moved here, aren’t coming around now.”
The Surgeon General has now identified loneliness as a serious health issue in America.
Who keeps you connected?
Who makes you feel alive?
How often do you see them?
