Just the other day, I reached out to an old friend with whom I had not had much connection over the last few years. He was my best friend during my internship year in 1999, an artistic sort who went on to develop a one-man show on diversity. His intuitiveness, genuine empathy, and dark sense of humor were most appreciated. With him living on the east coast, it became more difficult to see him outside of when he traveled to the Midwest for his show. And such as life, time moved on, and our lives became busy.
A rather private individual, I had most recently learned he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had resulted in him undergoing treatment with potential for surgery over the Summer. We reconnected and caught up like it was yesterday. This particular conversation brought me back to 1999. All the laughs and inside jokes and his understanding of me as a person. He knew me when and gave me exactly what I needed. I found myself back in touch with many pieces with which I had let slide over time. And he too, he noted, felt the same way.
Rather than allowing myself to get lost in the regret of time passed, I saw it as an experience much needed for each of us. I thought about the times ahead and our need for one another during this new developmental period in our lives. I was led to think about the importance of friendships over the lifespan and the much-needed magic that can take shape through such reconnection. Now in our early fifties, there is so much more to connect around and share as we are both faced with some new vulnerabilities.
The message: some friendships are priceless. They take us through long-faded memories and aspects of ourselves that have been stripped away through the course of everyday living. Maybe there is a friend out there to give a shout. Do not minimize the importance of maintaining and redeveloping your social support network.