How are you doing really?

Everyone wants to feel like the people closest to them care about them. I sometimes struggle to find the feeling and that feeling ties into my sense of self-worth. I woke up this morning absolutely exhausted after getting in very late from work. The first phone call I received was from someone asking a favor they needed me to transport an item for them. My second phone call was from a client who had an issue and so I had to drive an hour and 45 minutes both ways to resolve the issue. The third phone call I received was from another friend who was having trouble with her water heater and needed my advice. After a long day of helping everyone, I get home and collapse into slumber. I was woken up by another phone call and it was a friend who wanted to offload some of the stresses that she had been experiencing in the workplace.

Grand summation; I woke up exhausted and I ended the day feeling even more drained than I started. I do sometimes wonder if there's some energy I project that prevents others' from remembering to ask me how I'm doing? If there is some barrier that prevents them from seeing that I sometimes need a shoulder to lean on. Maybe this is just the reaction to a stressful day but there is something about having your tank on empty and it feels like everyone is still making withdrawals and nobody is remembering to make a deposit.

I'm guilty of it as well, forgetting to check in with people and see what's going on in their lives. Today has been a reminder to me that our relationships in this life are always two-way streets and we have to remember to give as much if not more than we take. If not we run the danger of bankrupting the relationship. This week I'll do my best to remember to check in on my friends.