Weddings, birthday’s, engagement’s-they are all times when your friends and family come together for a special occasion. These are also the times that get me thinking. I look around the room and I think about history. People who’ve known me since I was little or had pimples, dressed like a tom boy, had my first date, got drunk for the first time. You see some people have come and gone and that is ok as they were there at that time for a purpose. But I also have the best of friends, an amazing partner and a family who are my rock so I am one lucky girl.

Life is fleeting, we all know that. It is full of beautiful moments that at the time can seem like they will last forever, then one day, it is 20 years later and you think wow where did the time go. I often wonder then why do so many people wait till it is often too late to tell the people they care about, that they love them. I think I’ve always had a lot of love to give, I don’t ever want to say too much as is there such a thing? But it did take people to pass away for me to really grasp the idea of mortality and that though your love may last forever; people do not. So really why wait till it is too late?

I’ve been spending the last ten years especially, telling my loved ones how much they mean to me. I tell friends they are beautiful, I hug my parents, I smother my niece and nephew with kisses, I adore my partner and sister, I tell new friends I like them. What are people afraid of? I mean really isn’t ‘love and happiness’ what we are all searching for (thanks Al Green)? You can have all the money in the world, and yes you can buy the most expensive heater, but that ain’t really going to keep you warm at night. Money won’t honestly laugh at your jokes, tell you the truth even when you don’t want to hear it, it won’t love you even when you’re sick. Because that it what true friendship and love is for.

Yes the times they are a changing and you need to keep up with it. We now live in a cyber world, where it is a fact that we often have less human interaction and more virtual. We talk on the phone, text, we now online date. I’m not criticising this either as I have been born into it, but I just fear it tends to bring walls up between people. But it does also connect us in ways that the early pioneers would never have dreamed of. I just think we need to use these resources to our advantage. I know when I was living overseas I didn’t see my families face at all and it was hard. But now with programs like skype and facetime, isn’t it amazing that you can talk to a friend half way across the globe like they are right there sitting in your lounge room.

Trying to be all philosophical, I’ve said to a few people at these special events something that I’ve really recognized about myself in the last few years. Yes I would like to be successful in my career and financially, but my true measure of success is when I look around at my friends and family. I am truly a successful woman because of them. Because they love me just as much as I love them. So really as you get older, isn’t it important that you tell them all this. That you don’t wait till next time you see them. That maybe someone was having a shitty day and all they needed was a hug and you didn’t give it to them. So this week I urge you to turn any hatred or bad thoughts into love and compassion, help another and tell them that you care.