I read a book a little while ago that introduced the idea of "friends of convenience." That the people we spend the most time with are the people that are the easiest to spend time with. There's nothing wrong with friends of convenience; they just tend to break apart once the convenient factor is lost. You take a new job or you move away or one of you gets married and suddenly it's not as easy to meet up. Pretty soon that relationship starts to deteriorate.
I spent New Years Eve with my oldest friend. I've known her my entire life, and though we both grew up in Florida, we now both live in Virginia (I'm up north, she's down south). We spent the day together, and talked for exactly 12 hours, and never ran out of things to say. With her, it's always been easy to be friends. Partly, because this friend is really good at keeping in contact. But also because we talk about things that aren't tied to where we are, but who we are and what we think. And I've been thinking about it for the last 12 days.
One of my goals for this year is to be a better friend on purpose. Make phone calls and meet for dinner and send birthday cards. Recognize the friends that I love and make sure they know it. I don't know how to do this without being awkward and the whole idea of it intimidates me.
But I think it's really important. So I'm really going to try.
This is so good.
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