Check out how I spent last Monday evening. Pretty sweet, eh? And the car’s not too bad either. 😉
We needed to get out of the house for the evening. Emma was spending the night with my parents, so we borrowed my dad’s ’78 Fiat convertible. We didn’t know where we were going. We just knew we were heading out. With the top down. Just the two of us.
We decided on the fly to stop and see some friends. We didn’t call ahead of time. We just stopped by. We chatted in their driveway for a little while, did a little target shooting in the back yard (Yes, even I tried it!), and just enjoyed each other’s company.
Our conversation turned to wondering why people don’t ‘just stop by’ any more. We don’t usually just pop in to say hello. We’re busy. We’re scheduled. We like to keep our plans in order. If we’re getting together with friends, the plans are usually set a week or more ahead of time. But this quick, impromptu visit was a relaxing way to spend part of our evening out.
When we hopped back in the car, we decided to stop and see another friend. Hey, this ‘just stopping by’ thing could get to be a habit! This friend lives a good ways from our house, so we called to make sure he was home. He had emailed us earlier in the day to remind us that it was National Gummy Worm Day (for real!). So we stopped by the store, grabbed a bag of gummy worms, and headed out to his house. We had a relaxing visit and headed home.
It was all spur of the moment. There weren’t hours spent planning elaborate snacks and drinks. No Pinterest-worthy decorations. No RSVPs were needed. Just friends, enjoying each other’s company.
Maybe it’s time to drop the schedules, forget planning ahead, and just stop by for a visit. A little bit of time out of the day could end up being a huge, energizing blessing.
Jennifer – I love this post! You’re right, people don’t just stop by anymore. I hadn’t really thought about it before. When I was growing up on a farm, family and neighbors would just drop by quite often.
I think that’s what we’ve lost, Jann. I remember stopping by and having other people stop by often too.
Love this! We should “stop” by more often. Thanks for the reminder.
You should ‘stop by’ here whenever you’re in the area, my friend! 🙂
Honestly, I love the *idea* of dropping in, but if people stop by my house unannounced, it usually sets me into a panic and shame because my house is almost always a mess!! It embarrasses me to invite them in, only to have to clear the dirty cake pans off the table or push all the laundry to one end of the couch before I find a place and ask them to sit down…. but that’s just me 😉
I’m the same way, Rose. I’ve just recently been trying to shift my focus on the topic though. Here’s a post I wrote about hospitality not too long ago (http://thesimplepen.com/thoughts-on-hospitality/). But I do still have to battle the freak-out inside when people stop by. That’s one of the reasons we were willing to just chat outside with our friends. Didn’t want to put them in freak-out mode either. 🙂 Plus it was a beautiful evening!