Losing Friends

One of the shocking side effects that comes with living into a fourth quarter century of your life is losing friends... Did I pay close enough attention to our last few conversations? ...Was I really listening to words and body language?... Was there a plea for help? In your seventies you don't lose friends due to contrary political perspectives, even if you disagree. You don't lose friends because they stood you up on planned adventures. You realize people are going through a lot of different complications...one day good, one day not so good. We have learned to forgive often and repeatedly. I've had some of the same friends for fifty or more years. We don't see the world through the same or similar sets of eyes. We react to what life throws at us in a multitude of different ways. But, we still consider each other as friends. When one of us expires, we all grieve...and say, "Damn, was I really present during that entire friendship?"