Friendly Invigoration

Three friends have recently contacted me after a long period without being in contact, and it is an invigorating experience. It's so nice to catch up after so long. There is an initial guilt that you had not been in contact and that you had not perhaps realised how good it would have been if you had been in better contact. And there are awkward silences where you realise how much of their life you have missed and how much of your life they have missed. And no amount of "catching up" ever quite makes up for it, because you weren't together at the vital moments and you only get the stories once they have been diluted by hindsight, worn down to the bones by the memory and condensed by frequent telling.

That doesn't mean it's not worthwhile. In fact, the opposite. It's so good to speak to people and almost always you get on just as well as you always did. And it makes everything much more exciting when you can tell new people about things and talk to people about things that happened when you were last in contact and it's incredible.

In fact, I will be able to meet one or two of the three in the coming days, and it'll be really exciting. I love keeping in contact with people, even though it can be hard work sometimes, and my feeling at the moment is that yes, it's really worth it. And unless there is a proper reason why not, you can get back in touch with people even months or years after losing contact, cos it's great!