An inside joke that’s been running since middle school is a kind of friendship wealth you can’t fake.
GRATITUDE
WHAT THIS MEANS
Time is the one ingredient you cannot shortcut. A joke that has been running since you were twelve is funny because of the eleven years attached to it, not because of the joke, which is usually terrible when explained to anybody else. That is why new friendships, however good, cannot produce it on demand. You can only make it by having already waited.
Protect the old ones. Call the person you have not called, keep the group chat alive, and go to the thing when they ask, because those years are not replaceable.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Who shares a joke with you that nobody else gets?
MORE IN GRATITUDE & PRESENCE
- Your town’s library, park and pool were paid for by people who mostly never met you. Use them well.
- Holiday recipes nobody wrote down are family history you can taste. Stand in the kitchen and learn one.
- Mowing lawns for cash teaches you that a straight line is harder than it looks and a clean yard is somebody’s pride.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.