Leave the voicemail. Hearing your voice say “just checking on you” means more than you’d guess.

Voices carry information that text cannot, and people replay the ones that matter. Most of us skip the call because it feels like an imposition, or because we fear sounding awkward, so the person who would have been glad to hear from us gets nothing instead. The slight awkwardness is yours and the comfort is theirs.

Ring somebody you have been meaning to check on, and if they do not pick up, leave the thirty seconds anyway. Say your name, that you were thinking of them, and that there is nothing they need to do. Then do it again next month.