This is the year my friend and I set once upon a time ago to go exploring the streets of Paris, the workshops of Rome, and retrace steps in Germany. I brought it up and we both smiled and agreed Europe would have to wait.

Now that my closest friends are scattered and plane rides instead of car rides away, my tickets and destinations are not to landmarks and yelped haunts, but to familiar faces. Who knows when Paris awaits, but yesterday, I smiled and laughed more in one day than I probably have all year. It is so good to see old friends. It refreshes my heart like nothing else.