Telling your friends and family how much they mean to you. For instance, my best friend (of 20 years) is going through a weird friend breakup with a girl who has manipulated him for years. She basically keeps him on the back burner for whenever the primary man in her life gets sick of her shit. Then she emotionally, mentally, and financially exhausts him until she finds someone else. Most people have talked mad shit about this situation but I've defended it because for the most part she makes him happy and he makes her happy until their creepy co-dependency recently reached a head and he cut ties for the most part. Everyone is extremely relieved that the years of having to deal with her condescending manipulativeness are over, but I wanted to let him know that this doesn't change my opinion of him. That I trust his judgement in people. That if he decides fuck it, I want to get laid, and back pedals and takes her back in, I wont judge him. I love him for who he is and he is my friend. I don't want him to take her back and not have a friend around. I want him to know that I am always behind him no matter what. Even if he is having a relationship with someone that's meh.

Just letting the people in your life whose opinions you trust know that they are a person whose opinions you trust, goes a long way. Telling my best girl that I love her taste and style, that I emulate her every chance I get, and yes, I totally did rip that off because I think you're fabulous. Letting people know the actual magnitude of their effect on your life goes a really long way.

Occasionally, if a friend is down (I had a fair amount of friends with clinical depression), I will make a little care package of a bottle of wine/chocolate/pot/movie rebate and just drop it off. Like knock, hand them the package, and say "I just wanted to drop this off. You're awesome. Gotta go." works wonders for maintaining friendships. It shows that you care how they feel even if you can't be a part of it. Like, a lot of people want the feather in their cap of being the shoulder to cry on, but not everyone wants that. Sometimes people just want to be alone and they want to know that that's okay, and even better to know that someone they care about understands that and wants them to feel good and have fun in their space and comfort zone even if it doesn't include me. Really means a lot to people.