Dear Kid,

I’m off to meet a new friend for coffee this morning.

I love having new friends. I think—as I’ve gotten to this advanced age—that new friends are especially important as we get older.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the friends I’ve had forever. I treasure getting reconnected to them on social media and finding out that we’re living parallel lives in different parts of the country. I love knowing that I have friends that I can talk to in shorthand because they know all my nonsense and silliness and painful baggage.

But I also love having new friends. Finding new people who are doing interesting things in interesting ways and who I want to spend some of my free time getting to know better. Because these are the friends that will eventually know my nonsense and silliness and painful baggage and appreciate me from a different point of view.

Three cheers to different points of view, new friends, and a fresh cup of coffee.

Love, Mom