My guest this week is Sharon Prizant, Director of Marketing for Cumberland Advisors www.cumber.com
She has a wonderful story on ‘Staying in Touch’ that works so well in her family that it has become tradition. See how you can adapt to your own life and situation.
In Sharon’s words:
“In order to stay connected to family living throughout the US – beginning in the early 2000’s, I began to send a weekly email to my three children and have added, through the years, their spouses, a cousin and sometimes others.
I call this email, “Shabbat Shalom” and send every Friday afternoon- however, I have been known to send it on Thursday or Saturday… and try hard to not skip a week even if I have only a moment to write.
I include what I have heard about each of the adult kids during the previous week- such as ‘Rachel and Ben are going hiking this week on the Pacific Coast Trail’ and this week is the 6thwedding anniversary of Nivine and Mitch. I often use clip art to say Happy Birthday, Happy Valentine’s Day or obviously whatever is pertinent to that specific week.
I do not do this on a regular weekly basis with other extended family members, however, I text often (no schedule) with my sister and several cousins to be sure we stay connected and we keep each other up to date that way.
The “Shabbat Shalom” emails have proven to be a good review of the year and one year one of my sons-in-law put together a book (like a photo book) using the emails from the entire year. Fun to look back and review the activities in which we were all involved during the year’s past.
At one point a few years ago, I decided to ask asked them, in an email, if they were ‘over’ the “Shabbat Shalom” emails and immediately received messages saying “NO”- they apparently look forward to the connection.”
***Thank you again to Sharon- I love this story and a great way to keep the internal connection within the family spread across the United States. Modify and make it work for you with family; friends and any other connections. The goal is finding creative ways to ‘Stay in touch’.