Show Up!
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about two simple words: Show up.
It sounds easy. It isn’t always.
We’re busy. We’re tired. We have work, children, families, responsibilities, deadlines, bills, dogs that need to be fed, people who need us, and sometimes we’re carrying things nobody else can see.
So this isn’t a lecture about attending every dinner, answering every text immediately or saying yes to every invitation.
Showing up can look different on different days.
Sometimes it’s getting on a plane.
Sometimes it’s sitting in the front row.
Sometimes it’s making the phone call.
Sometimes it’s dropping off dinner, sending the text, buying the ticket, making the introduction, remembering the birthday or checking in when everyone else has moved on.
Sometimes showing up means giving someone the grace to understand they can’t be there physically, while making sure they know they still matter.
Presence doesn’t always require being in the room. It requires caring enough to make the effort.
Benjamin Franklin wrote, “A true Friend is the best Possession.”
I love that.
But I think there’s another side to it: if you want good friends, work at being a good friend.
Friendship isn’t something we collect. It’s something we participate in.
And there’s no scorecard.
Real friendship isn’t “I came to yours, so you have to come to mine.” Life doesn’t work that neatly. There are seasons when you have more to give and seasons when you need a little more from the people who love you.
Showing up isn’t about keeping track.
It’s about making the effort when you can, giving grace when someone else can’t, and knowing that over a lifetime of friendship, we carry each other in different ways at different times.
Sometimes you’re in the front row cheering.
Sometimes you’re the one who needs to look up and see a familiar face.
Both matter.
Some of the most meaningful times we show up are when it isn’t particularly convenient. When the calendar is packed. When it requires a drive, a flight, a change of plans or simply giving someone an hour you thought you didn’t have.
Not every time. Not for everything. But when it matters.
Because people remember who was there.
The same is true with family, community, business, and pretty much every meaningful relationship in our lives.
And I’ve started looking at being asked to show up differently, too.
An invitation can feel like one more thing on an already packed calendar. But what a wonderful problem to have.
People to celebrate.
People to support.
Places where your presence matters.
Work worth doing.
Causes worth fighting for.
Children to cheer for.
Friends to love.
Having people and things to show up for is one of the signs of a full life.
Of course, there is one person we sometimes leave off the list:
Ourselves.
Showing up for yourself matters, too.
Sometimes showing up for yourself means not showing up somewhere else.
Resting. Protecting your time. Saying no without writing a three-paragraph explanation. Keeping the promise you made to yourself. Going to the appointment. Taking the walk. Starting the business. Writing the book. Trying again when something didn’t work.
Giving yourself the same encouragement you so freely give everyone else.
Showing up isn’t about perfection.
It’s about character.
It’s saying: This matters to me, so I’m going to make an effort.
And effort counts.
I’ve always believed that so much of life happens because we showed up.
We meet someone. We learn something. We help somebody. Somebody helps us. An ordinary Tuesday becomes a story we tell for the next twenty years.
You can’t experience all of those moments from the sidelines.
Benjamin Franklin also wrote, “Well done is better than well said.”
Exactly.
Love people? Show them.
Care about something? Participate.
Believe in somebody? Cheer for them.
Believe in yourself? Get moving.
Or, as I like to say in slightly less Benjamin Franklin language:
GOYA. Get off your ass.
Not because you have to be everywhere for everybody.
Not because saying no makes you a bad friend.
Not because life is a contest to see who can do the most.
Because life is happening.
There will be times when you’re the one cheering from the front row and times when you desperately need to look up and see a familiar face cheering for you.
So when you can, for the people you love, for the things you believe in, and for yourself….
