Am I Really Old Enough to Have "Old Friends"?

I have issues with using the term "old friend" because I think both my friend and I would agree that we're not OLD. *sigh*

Anyhow, as I was making our Christmas card list this week I realized there were some friends I wanted to add to my list that I couldn't because time and distance and inconsistency had lost their addresses. No working e-mail address, no working phone numbers....Nada. I've been thinking a lot about mending relationships as I've been reading Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning." So I decided to do my own investigative work and try and reconnect with some of my favorite people who I miss.

I'm constantly amazing (and frightened) by how easy it is to find information online. But in this case, I was so excited to find at least one of the people I've been missing. A couple are still eluding me, but I haven't given up hope yet. There's always that Christmas miracle.

It might sound a bit morbid, but death has been on my mind a lot lately. Not my own. But the idea that life is short and that people are always gone too soon. We realized this all too viscerally last year when we lost 7 of our family and friends. Now I feel this deep need to let others know what they mean to me - to not allow life's complications & frustrations get in the way of loving people and letting people know what they mean to me. There's not always time for a second chance or to tell someone later or to wait for an argument to clear. And not being able to tell that person when it's too late is almost worse than the death itself.

Anyway, I'm so excited to find my friends and share life with them again.