I love the first Sunday of the month.
I idle my car outside Susan’s house at 7am.
She leaps off her front porch, jumps in and directs me to whatever part of Lake Macquarie she has thought of to introduce me to.
We bushwalk, go out for quarter-strength lattes 😆 and I drop her back home.
It’s a monthly check-in that I so value.
We met in the Condobolin hospital nursery the day I was born, lived in Sydney for uni at the same time and then made Newcastle home for living with our fellas and raising our little blighters.
We spent OODLES of time together as mums of young bubs but since starting our businesses (hers is Newcastle Music Therapy) noticed it got significantly harder to find pockets of time to water our 40+ year friendship.
Doing it this way we at least know we will get 12 catch-ups in a year.
The early start means it rarely clashes with other things.
I love that the catch-ups feel like a metronome that keeps us in beat. A bit like a healthy pulse.
Sometimes the monthly catch-ups are light and fun, sometimes they are about something specific being navigated work-wise, sometimes grief and loss features and I pretty much snot-cry on myself the whole walk wishing I’d brought a tissue.
Every time we are glad we got up early for it.
What catch-ups do you notice fuel you up?
What does it take to make those happen?
Who do you miss that you would love to build in an automated catchup with?