I visited with a good friend on Sunday. It had been too long since we’d gotten together, which is almost entirely my fault since I’m not the one with a newborn. I sent a text in the morning asking if he’d be home and made the visit in the mid-afternoon.

At one point in the conversation my friend suggested that he’d expected me to tell him I’d be moving in the new year. That was a stinging indictment, and I don’t have current plans to relocate (though in fairness to him I did leave Raleigh on January 1 a few years ago to mark an end to that chapter of my life). Instead, I just wanted to spend some time with him. That was my only agenda item. It was refreshing. We sat in the living room for about an hour and talked while the baby slept. Then I took my normal Sunday walk on the American Tobacco Trail before sunset and a nice dinner of home-cooked, farm-raised lamb chops that I’d brought from Kentucky when I visited for Thanksgiving. It was one of the better Sundays I’ve had in a while.

So if this can serve as a note, take the opportunity this Christmas season to reach out to the friend you haven’t talked to in too long. The small effort will be good for both of your souls.