Spring Challenge

Spring represents yet the beginning of another baseball season in the Lehr household. The new season brings with it a couple things, fatigue and friendships. Fatigue because it’s difficult to get each child to their practices and games and juggle the everyday issues of parenthood. More importantly the new season brings the resurgence of relationships that grow dormant during the off season.

I’ve enjoyed seeing the parents, who I count as friends, over the last couple weekends. The downtime between games, hotel stays, and team dinners are just as enjoyable as the competition itself. This got me thinking about all the past relationships that have grown stagnant.

In our current social media culture, relationships seem to be deteriorating to a remnant of what they once were. It seems liking a person’s photos on Facebook constitutes friendship nowadays. Let me be clear, I’m a proponent of social media; in fact I have made social media engagement a goal for 2014. It’s just that a social media friendship is not enough.

This past week I made a conscious effort to revive some relationships I’ve neglected over the past several months and, in some cases, years. I’ve called a number of friends that I’ve lost contact with including my original Toastmasters Mentor, a shipmate, and a supplier from my purchasing days. To my surprise one of my former coworkers was worried I was mad at him.

It’s been a rewarding experience reviving these neglected friendships and my challenge for you is to pick up the phone and reach out to three to five people you have lost touch with.

There is a line from a book that always stood out to me that loosely applies here. Annette Simmons, in her book The Story Factor, said “the alchemy of influencing emotions is primarily based on one secret ingredient: human attention.” When I first read her book it stood out to me because I realized how scarce human attention is becoming.

Let me leave you with one more quote.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” - C. S. Lewis

Marshall Lehr, CC, ALB

Photo credit: Jamie Wendell