follow through

When I lived in LA and was in my home turf with plenty of friends, I often told people I'd meet....let's have dinner or coffee sometime. It's something a lot of us do casually with the best of intentions, but really we know we may not have the time or interest at all.
Since I have moved to 2 different states and have been that "new" girl looking for friendship, I hung dearly to the words "Let's do lunch". What I found was that so many of us say that and so many of us really don't follow through. I was let down again and again waiting for plans to work out to have a get together and no matter my attempts or patience, I came away from many acquaintances sad and let down again. After all, I was really in need of some friends.
Recently, I met a mom from Jay's basketball team. She seemed so nice and friendly. Once again I heard "let's get the kids together". I really liked her and hoped she really meant it, but I knew better than to get my hopes up. A couple weeks passed and she invited me to lunch. Then I got the phone message that there was a time conflict. Instead, of the easy thing to do - cancelling, we moved our lunch a bit later. Yesterday, I made a new friend over sushi and am overjoyed that she really wanted to get to know me. I was so happy that she did not just talk about possible future plans, but we actually did it!
May this be a reminder to myself when I meet a possible new friend to not just talk about possible plans, but to really make them and follow through!