long-distance friendships

Today I saw my friend Vikki for the first time in a long time. She lives about two hours away from my home (without any traffic on the Long Island Expressway). The geographic divide between us as well as the hectic pace of our lives could have wreaked havoc on our relationship, but the two of us seem to slip in and out of each other’s lives with flexibility, grace and forgiveness. The roots of our friendship run deep---forty-one years to be exact---and we are not about to give that up...

Some friendships are truly exceptional like the one described by Sola, a reader of this blog who lives in Omaha, Nebraska. I asked her to share her story because her wisdom and insights about female friendships are universal.

This is what she wrote:

Toyin and I have been friends for nearly 30 years...

Now we call it “snail mail.” For those of us who were born in the slice of time after telephones and fax machines---and before email, IMs, and text messages---writing a letter was a common way to stay in touch with family and friends across the miles...