Relationships are hard and if you disagree, you're wrong.
To clarify, I'm referring to every type - from friends, family, romantic, strangers, mentors, etc.
The older I get, the more this feeling becomes prevalent. I find myself having relationships with all sorts of people, but managing them feels practically impossible. It's not like I don't treat each and every one of them with care, I swear I try to - but I'll always find myself having slip-ups.
"Oh it's been so long since I spoke to [NAME]. Damn, I should have reached out months ago. We used to be such great friends..."
These types of thoughts constantly go through my mind whenever I go through social media and often find myself not doing much about it. I think it's human nature to think back on old memories of people and reminisce. Then immediately question what you want to do with that memory?
A - Let it fade away
B - Take steps to piece it back together. If there is anything you want to piece together.
Option A is a pretty clear path. The immediate serotonin that hits the brain, but an immediate cut off. Realizing that too much time has passed and you don't know that person anymore for you to reach out. Sometimes I'll question if I even knew the person in the first place and question the relationship. "Were we really that close?". It's also weird in this day and age where liking someone's story can come across as both friendly and weird. But anyway, you get the point - the conversation isn't worth it, so I'll just let the memory fade.
Option B is a longer path. This is where you go through the same steps as Option A, but now decide that there is something there you want to rekindle. The shards of lost time that you can't seem to explain, but the bond still exists. At least, in your gut so why not give it a shot. Whenever this happens to me, I'll send a little blurb. But is that enough? Probably not. I'd say it depends on the quality of the relationship in the first place. Relationships seem to be a mix of letting another person be MIA (live their life) and reconnect - an endless loop.
I think it's this level of intentionality I find myself forcefully doing or else, nothing happens. It's not something I do always, but I try to implement this as sprints. A block of time to simply reach out to folks that I care about and hear about their lives. The little stories that I miss in their day-to-day.