6. Golden Friendships

For the ‘Live Up To You’ 2020 project we post one little wellbeing idea/suggestion/technique each week that you and your friends are welcome to self-experiment with in your life and see how it works for you.

‘Be your own project’.

Bronnie Ware worked as a palliative care nurse who helped people in the last stages of life and she found common themes that she wrote about in ‘5 regrets of the dying’. One of themes was “I wish I had of stayed in touch with my friends” and she talks about how often we let our old friends slip away because we get too busy and into our own lives. In the last stages of life the things that matter are love and relationships. We all know this, then why do many of us let the things that matter slip?

This week I attended a heart-breaking funeral of a friend who I grew up with. It was the largest funeral I have been to. The church overflowed with people from all walks of life and different life stages. My friend lived in a way that touched everyone’s hearts filling them with friendship, humour and love. He was the ‘master of golden friendships’. His wife shared three simple takeaways on how he lived his life. This is pretty good advice and I think he got it right. Hopefully my interpretation is ok.

1. You can always pick up the phone and connect

2. Never miss an opportunity to tell the people you love that you love them

3. Make time for friends and family

Are there people in your life that mean the world to you but you haven’t touched based with for years? The type of friends that you know when you see them time slips away and you pick up where you left off. If you’re thinking or wondering about what an old friend is up to why not just connect and find out?

This post is dedicated to Matt Murney ‘The master of golden friendships’