I had lunch with a friend—a friend I hadn’t had lunch with since before the pandemic.

The lunch was a reminder that it’s wonderful to have friends—friends we see often and also friends we don’t see so often. It is special to have friends who are friends and remain friends even when we don’t see them.

This friend, who survived cancer during the pandemic, had a birthday. We celebrated!

As Nina Totenberg explains in her book Dinners with Ruth, “Friendship is what cushions life’s worst blows and what rejoices in life’s hoped-for blessings.”

–Joy