The African Ingo tribe coined the phrase “It takes a village to raise a child”. I have found my Village People and we have been raising our children together for many years. When I first moved to Chicago in the early stages of married life, I formed an instant bond of kinship to a group of strong and capable women and men that my husband and I embraced like family. Throughout our lives we have been each others stability often finding ourselves sharing in laughter, tears and fears of financial stress or teenaged angst in raising our children. We have been backup sitters, 3 am phone calls in hard times and even fiscal advocates when things were difficult. So, when I realized that I was paying more attention to my car maintenance than my friendship maintenance lately I realized it was time for a personal intervention.
Life gets busy with kids, laundry, homework, meals, carpools, paperwork and the list could go on and on. It’s difficult to remember to nourish those relationships that ground you. It takes an effort on my part to remember to pick up the phone, when dropping an impersonal email or text takes so little effort. But, personal connection with those important people in life is so imperative to our being, to my being. I always feel great after feeding my social soul and sharing with another person that I enjoy.
So, today – just a reminder to call an old friend, check in with a current one and maybe even facetime with a cup of coffee. You will be so happy to connect to your Village Person and share yourself and your family with the support of others.
