They say the only constant in life is change, and people are certainly no exception to that maxim. Partners, friends, relatives, coworkers, acquaintances -- they evolve, for better or worse. Wishing things could revert to how they used to be in any given relationship sets one up for major disappointment. The fact of the matter is that you may have a friend who's very different today from how she was in, say, 2012. Shifting priorities, new experiences, and changing views each play a role in our evolution as people. Unfortunately, such changes can be detrimental to a relationship. Your friend gets married or starts a family and forgets you exist. Your boyfriend has to relocate for his job and now you hardly hear from his anymore. Your closest cousin is hanging out with a different crowd and no longer seems like the person you grew up with. It's understandable that such life events would make people less available. Gone are the days when you could arrange outings on ...

In my experience, nothing adversely affects a friendship more than the following: Broken trust because of a lie or some other misdeed Distance (one or both parties move) Change of lifestyle (someone gets married, has kids, etc.) I've had friendships with certain people end for one or more of these reasons. And even the ones I've been able to maintain to this day have been tested by at least one of the above circumstances.  Keeping a friendship these days is not easy work. We all seem to be getting busier and busier with each passing year. But it seems forging new friendships is an even more arduous task. It isn't as easy to do now as it was back in college -- not by a long shot.  That's why it's important to keep the lines of communication open with friends you do want to keep in your life. Carve out a little time each week for a phone call or text message. Whether your friends live hundreds of miles away or right around the corner, you never know w...

I have found that two-day weekends are hardly enough to do everything on my To Do List -- and I don't even have kids!  I can only imagine my time being cut a lot shorter with a little one running around. My wife and I recently bought a condo and here we are, two months later, still in the process of moving in and getting settled. I don't know whose idea it was to have people work five days a week and have only two days off, but I think working four days and having three off seems a lot more fair. After all, once we leave work each day, many businesses -- like insurance companies and banks -- have either closed or are a couple of hours short of doing so. How nice would it be to have Fridays off? That would give us an extra day to run errands so that we have two days left over to spend with our loved ones. I suppose this could be problematic, though, because if those in private industry are off Fridays, that means many of the people working for the companies providing the ser...