I think that a sign of a strong friendship is the ability to pick up from where you left off after not having seen one another for a while. Maybe you haven't seen somebody you were once very close with in a while and you didn't stay in very regular touch -- everyone has some guilt about how regularly they do or don't talk to their long-distance friends. If you're awkward like me, you might worry that the reunion will be uncomfortable or unnatural. Are we both totally different people? Did I miss any significant milestones? Did I send them a birthday text last year? Despite the potentially dulled connection, you feel obligated to get lunch together because a lot of time has passed.

Sometimes it doesn't quite work out the way you hope it will, with the connection springing back into the forefront of your mind and rekindling the feelings from the days you spent bonding and making memories years ago. Maybe one of you is more mature than the other, or your interests have diverged and you no longer have much to talk about. It can be painful to realize that hanging out with a "friend" just isn't fun.

Rare are the connections that resume as if uninterrupted -- a moment's greeting and then everything falls into place as normal. When a group of my close friends gets together after time apart, I am always astounded to see that our group dynamic weathers just about all personal changes, significant milestones, setbacks, and separations. When we reconvene, it feels like being at home by a warm fire and reminiscing about good memories.

Even after a year (or more!) apart, even through intense ups or downs, a good friend will still feel like the person you've always known and loved. It can be incredibly comforting to have a strong, stable connection when so much else in life is dynamic and hard to count on, so it's essential that we work on cultivating the relationships we have into ones that last.