This afternoon, one of my friends and I will be boarding a plane to visit another friend of ours. When we get there, yet another friend will have already arrived from across the country, so the four of us will be reunited for a girls’ weekend. : )

We became friends in college, when we were used to seeing one another every day. We still keep in touch, but it’s harder to get together when everyone lives all over the place. It’s tough to schedule times when we can all get away from work and other responsibilities for some time together.

But it’s so important, you know? These are people with whom I share some of my favorite memories. They know me so well (and love me anyway!). They’re the people I can count on for anything, and I don’t want to spend years apart—or worse, lose touch entirely.

I think social media can be a wonderful way to keep in touch with people, but I think it can also trick us into thinking we don’t need to see our old friends as often because we can hop on the computer and say hello. Yes, that’s great, but it doesn’t replace the time we need to spend sitting around the same table, having face-to-face conversations.

And laughing together! I firmly believe people need to laugh together—in real life, no emoticons implying the laughter for us.

So we’ll be doing a lot of laughing together, I’m sure. Goodness knows we need it.

Well, I’m off to pack. I hope you have a lovely, lovely weekend. Call an old friend and catch up a bit, why don’t you? It’s probably just what your soul needs.