6:40 pmRelationships

The people you love are not a someday.

Think of someone you love who doesn't live with you. Their age and how often you see them light the visits ahead along the path.

About 100 more visits.

They live to about eighty-five, and you keep seeing them as often as now: assumptions, not predictions. If the person you thought of is no longer here, we're sorry. You're welcome to skip this one.

A question for tonight What is a small thing I do that makes you feel cared for?

If you see your parents a few times a year, the number of visits left is smaller than it feels. The same goes for old friends, grandparents, a brother or sister in another city. Counting is not morbid. It turns an ordinary dinner into what it really is.

The visits ahead

Someone who is sixty, seen four times a year: about a hundred more visits. Each dot is one.

Questions to sit with

  • Who would you call if you had ten free minutes right now?
  • When did you last ask someone a question and really listen to the answer?
  • What do you wish you had said to someone, and could still say?

A practice for today

Ask one new question

Tonight, ask someone you love a question you have never asked them. What were you like at my age? What small thing makes you feel cared for?

Then just listen. Don't fix, don't advise.

The app we made for this

TwoHearts gives two people who love each other one question a day, so you keep learning about each other long after you think you know everything.