I Can’t Make You ____ Me

I can’t make you love me.

Or like, need, or want me.

You either do or you don’t.

That’s not a slam to me, I know I’m an acquired taste.  And just like I don’t have to be friends with everybody, I don’t expect everybody to be friends with me.

But what do you do when there are people in your life you already have a relationship with, but one of you is better at contact than the other?  What do you do when as time goes on you start to share less and less, then you stop picking up the phone (either to make the call or to answer), and after awhile you just don’t know what to say to the other?

Do you cherish the memories, say a mental “Goodbye”, and move onto the next phase of life?  Are we only in each other’s lives for a season?  Do you sit them down to lunch and talk, or write them a letter and tell them how you feel?

What if you both want the relationship, but one of you is significantly busier than the other?  What if you want the relationship but there’s an age difference that makes it difficult?  What do you do when the relationship feels forced, or that you’re an albatross around the neck to them?

What do you do if it’s family?

What Brown Can Do For Me

Is deliver a truckload more packages than they currently do!

(Seriously, is there a better rush than that quick-fire rapping on the door to tell you Dr. Hotpants has left a delivery at your doorstep?)

Today I got B’s “thing to read” present.  We’re trying a new tradition this year.  Have you heard the saying “Something to wear, something to read, something they want, and something they need”?  Well that’s what we’re doing.  So far every kid has something to read.  At this point, that’s about all we can do.  Part of me has sadness and anxiety about it, part of me is glad.  The presents aren’t what Christmas is for anyway, right?

This also gives me lots of energy to devote to the memories.  We’ve been reading out of our massive Christmas library every night, and occasionally watching a holiday show.  The decorations have gone up along with some dancing to the tunes of the season, and I decided there couldn’t be a better day to visit the beach than Christmas, so that’s where we’ll be on the big day!