I Learned a very important lesson today. I had a friend who needed me two week ago. She didn’t actually call me. I called her. When she returned my call, it was the following day and I was unavailable. I was actually in a very challenging place regarding communication. There was no cell reception and my hotel did not have Internet.

This person had sent me an email letting me know there had been two suicides over the weekend in her community. I thought that was terrible but I wasn’t able to answer. I did get an email off explaining my situation but failed to mention the Suicide. When I got to civilization, I phoned her again, leaving her a message about my availability and again did not mention the suicide.

I thought she would have phoned me sometime this week but she didn’t so today, I phoned her. She called me back and explained how angry she was with me. It turns out these suicide victims were very close friends of hers. She has been struggling, trying to make sense of it all and needed me but I basically abandoned her. I didn’t recognize the significance of the situation and prioritize my Attention to the matter.

Fortunately, she forgave me. And I have learned that when people reach out to me, I need to do more to give my attention and connect.

When was the last time you had such a serious breach of trust in a friendship and what did you do about it?