Grow Your Friends

A travel job serves some useful functions. It's a path to new places, a way to avoid the confines of a cubicle and a home life social filter. It's amazed me how quickly loyal friends forget you exist once you give up your local gym membership for a franchised one with multi-city access. It's amazing how quickly friends assume you won't be coming to events, so they fail to try to invite you. Soon, your personal cell phone is as silent as a hotel room (with three stars or above).
Then, a remarkable thing happened. Out of the dozen phone calls I made to "friends" following my last week long excursion east announcing my return to local society, only one person answered... my son. And we chatted for nearly an hour. And to be honest, he and his two brothers really were the friends I missed most. They always greet my return with wide arms waiting for hugs, eager to hear my stories and enthusiastic about sharing theirs. There is never judgement nor concern projected from them, just pure joy in each reunion. As we banter and laugh, especially me because my kids are clever as heck, it occurs to me that my time couldn't be better enjoyed with anyone else. In that moment, I realized I had unwittingly grown my own best friends, loyal and unconditionally loving.