“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

A few weeks ago I took a test. It was meant to determine what my values are and to see what kind of job would be most suitable for me.

The results weren’t surprising. According to the test, I value relationships above everything else.

I am in public relations, after all. It reinforced that I am in the right industry. And it got me to thinking about values and relationships and the decisions I have made because of them.

I have no regrets.

Regret is a wasted emotion in my book because we are all on our own journey. Every aspect of our lives is essential to get us to where we are meant to go.

Sure, we can optimize things. The Power of Slow is about optimizing how you spend your time by spending it on what is most important to you and getting rid of all the yucky, distracting stuff we do to compensate for not getting what we want.

And that gets us back to our value system.

Friends and family are most important to me. They are my soul food. Over the years, I have travelled hundreds of thousands of miles to see the people I love. And I have never regretted a single moment I have spent with each and every one of them.

As a dear old friend told me on the phone just yesterday: “You won’t remember how expensive that trip was. You will remember the time, not the money, you spent.”

In a way it is hard, having friends all over the world because I can only be in one place at one time. And so we have to choose with whom we will spend our time.

Choose wisely. Embrace the ones you love. Remove toxic relationships from your life because your time is better spent with people worthy of you.

You never know if this moment is the final one. Treat it as a gift. Give of that gift generously. And you will be the very friend you seek.

Don’t you just love how that works?