Friends happen.

So after months of disconnection from dear friends from away, I had a whole day of renewed friending. With old friends who are really more like family.

So restorative.

I learned again today it is vital to spend time with friends who have known you since you were little and who still love you.

These friends have seen me at my worst and have celebrated with me during my best times. And I with them when the tables were reversed.

Today I got to hear my dear friend Gerry regale me with stories of our wild and misspent youth on the rocky outcropping into the Atlantic Ocean known as the province of Newfoundland.

He reminded me of places we used to investigate as adolescent adventurers: Fort Amherst, Signal Hill, Fort Pepperell, Quidi Vidi Lake, The Battery and the Gut. Even the names sound reminiscent of another time and place, which, indeed, they were.

Newfoundland is celebrated for its hospitality and the warmth of its people and the general bonhomie that prevails there. Though not born among them, I am proud to be of them by a form of adoption they extend to tolerable “mainlanders.”

In Gerry’s now-muted Newfoundland accent and the laughs that emerged from the depths of his belly on our futile drive around today, we made more memories. I fully expect to be the butt of Gerry’s jokes in the retelling of Gerry’s stories up the road.

Back at home, best friend Diane and hubby Hank got to bond over their mutual concern for our whereabouts. We had texted that we were alive and well. But the new-fangled SIM card that was just installed in her phone wouldn’t play ball.

I miss these days for their infrequency. As we have gotten older and separated by time and distance, it is harder to stay connected.

Which is why refresher visits like this one are absolutely essential.

Friends – especially longterm friends – carry pieces of us around with them. We remember things together. We laugh at the same old jokes. We bathe in the comfort of old stories and updates on other old friends.

It is a profound comfort to have such friends in my life. Still.

With that, I am going to continue to enjoy them for the rest of the evening and for every day that they are here.

I feel very lucky and honored to have known both of them for so well and for so long. Definitely a family of choice.

This is the kind of friendship that money absolutely can’t buy.

And yet, I feel very rich.