Friendship in the Middle Years

The first of these were written in my thirties, when the twins were small and friendship ran on borrowed time: a phone call folded into a commute, a visit planned around nap schedules. I wrote about the women who showed up, and about the distance that crept in when I could not.

The later entries are lonelier. Midlife does that. People move, group chats thin out, and one day you notice that the friend who knew you at twenty-five has not seen your kitchen in ten years. I kept at it anyway: drift, repair, asking someone to walk with me and being asked back.

Twenty-four pieces, 11 years. Read in order, they turn into one long practice of asking.

Start at the top. The early warmth explains the later ache.

Making and Keeping (2011–2014)

The Lonelier Stretch (2018–2022)