Somebody you love is getting older every time you say “next time.” Make some of the next times now.

Postponement does not pause anybody. The phrase sounds like a plan and functions as a decision to do nothing, while the people it concerns keep getting older on the usual schedule. None of this calls for panic. It calls for converting a few of the vague next times into actual dates.

Take one of yours and make it this month: the visit, the lunch, the drive out to see somebody. Put it in the calendar with a day attached to it. One scheduled thing is worth a dozen intended ones.