There's a lot of talk out there, in this day of social media about how the internet keeps us in touch with people we normally would have let fall by the wayside. And I understand that the changing boundaries of things, make these discussions important, but I think what gets less attention is that these same things allow you to keep relationship fires burning where marriages, kids, jobs, and other adult life crazy might just have made it not harder to keep up, but feel more like, well, I haven't talked to them in months, I can't call now. Of course, good friends will always be thrilled to hear from you, but it's easy to let the angst around that build up until in some part of your brain it seems less risky to do nothing and risk losing touch completely than to reach out and risk being that friend who thinks you are still friends. (The brain can be a twisty place sometimes.)
So, in the last few months I have had the chance to travel up to hang out with a friend from long ago summer camp to celebrate a round birthday, to reconnect with an old roommate and her friends who live just far away enough in Maryland these days that we have to plan to hang out or it doesn't happen, visit with a friend who's life has taken her to the other side of the country, and I have some more reconnecting and gathering plans on the calendar for 2016. I also hung out with knitting and book club friends that I see more regularly but all of whom I met through means internet. So, the internet has helped fill and keep full my life with wonderful people and I am very grateful.