One of my best girlfriends Andrea called me yesterday to rant about how she hates hearing how other people are so busy (and rant about other things in general as we so often do).

I joined in the rant. It really gets my goat too.

I mean, I get busy. I am a Mom. Who works full time and is self employed. And we have 5 kids. And a house. And a yard. And we need to eat. And be clothed. And sleep. And I volunteer at church. And at bake sales and field trips. I have family and friends that are important to me. Blah Blah Blah. I get busy.

But does my busy-ness matter to you? Quite frankly, no. It doesn’t make you any less busy. Your busy-ness doesn’t make mine any less busy. We are all busy.

And yet, some people seem to use “I’m busy” as an excuse which really translates into “You didn’t make my cut. You are not a priority to me. I’ll excuse my poor behaviours/communication by pulling out the “I’m busy clause””.

We all do it. I’m guilty just like the next guy.

And it’s something I want to change.

I am busy. But I need to make sure I am not too busy for what is important to me. My busy-ness needs to be more guided by my priorities. I don’t want to tell my kids, my husband, my family, my best friends that “I am too busy”. Because really I am only telling them they are not important enough to me.

I have been a little more cognizant recently of this. I had a conversation with one of my closest and oldest girlfriends Tarina a few months ago about this exactly and she really pointed this out to me: No one is too busy for relationships. If you are, it’s a problem. We may be busy – but send a quick email, a quick text, a note, a voicemessage to say “I’m thinking of you despite my busy-ness”. It makes all the difference in the world. I need to get better at this too.

So the next time someone tells me how busy they are, I will just smile, think to myself – “Yah – you and me both. So what?” and use it as a reminder to make sure I am busy with all the right things.