Kids are the best

Today, in HomeGoods, I was looking at mugs… this sweet little girl, about 10 years old, excused herself to walk in front of me. She told me that she loves Stitch and she just had to look at all the things with Stitch on them. I happened to see one that was tucked away in the back of the shelf and pointed it out. She told me that her family goes to Disneyland every year. I told her that when my kids were little we went as much as we could. She stood there for a minute or so and then walked away to her mom. Before she left, she said, “have a good day.” Then I heard her go to the next aisle and tell her mom in the most excited voice, “Mom, I just made a new friend!” Then she told her mom about the entire conversation. It made my day!

They got me thinking about how easy it is when your little to make friends. And maybe they don’t become your best friends and sometimes you never see them again, but you still believe you have a new friends.

When we are adults, we have meaningful relations with our friends but we also have casual friendships. These casual relationships are actually very important to our well-being. I did a bit of reading based on this idea, and it seems as though there are some critical things that we get from these casual friendships.

A Different Perspective

We can get an outside perspective when we engage with our workmates, people we know from the gym or wherever we happen to speak with people. Our close circle of friends may share our values and interests, which is great and definitely valuable. But if I think about my own experiences, I have been influenced maybe even challenged a bit to think about things a different way when I hear an idea from someone outside my circle of friends and family. It has more then once led to positive changes in my life.

It Removes Pressure

This is something that I have definitely felt myself. Thinking back to Covid (ugh) I remember there was a point where my husband and I had nothing left to talk about. I was trying to think of things to do, shows to watch and games to play and….nothing, nada, zip, ziltch. But as soon as we were able to start seeing people again, on a regular basis, the pressure was gone. We had new experiences to share with each other, new ideas to talk about. The same thing happened when I wasn’t working outside the house. The kids moved out and I started to feel the pressure again. Once I started working and having a life outside the house, I just felt lighter and happier. I had funny things to share and new interesting ideas to contemplate, especially when someone mentioned something I had no clue about.

Validation

I don’t know if this is exactly the right word, but I think it is. In general, it seems most people have some core values in common. The well-being of your family, being thoughtful about nature and other human beings in general are all pretty important to most of us. When you get to talk to people outside your circle, it is nice to know that they are going through what you’re going through. We have shared experiences, we aren’t alone. You don’t have to have a deep conversation to know that we all hurt, we all love, we all feel.

We are all connected. So I guess that’s the long way of me saying I found a new friend today and she loves Disneyland too.