Aren't there some names that pop-up in your e-mail or texts or IMs that make you think you'll make it through even this day?

Communicating with friends, keeping in touch has become such an easy thing to do--touch a button, decypher the abbreviations and codes, and phone bills, having stamps handy, the postal service all fade away. 

As easy as it can be to keep in touch these days, it fascinates me that one can find friends in cyberspace that become a very real, tangible force in life. 

A friend who recently dropped me a line is someone I met at college.  We were both outcasts, loved horses, and admired each other.  Though we were only physical friends for a semester, our friendship has lasted from then on. 

Then there's a friend I met online, a fellow author whose work has inspired, and whose advice and friendship I have treasured.  She's as physical a presence, really, as my college friend, though I never sat in a dorm room reading my work to her. 

If I met either of those two today, I might disappoint them, might not be what they expected.  Somehow, though, even if we were to bump into each other tomorrow on the sidewalk, we'd probably still be friends as we picked each other up.

And maybe that's the beauty of friendship--a hand extended to pick up, and an effort to find the qualities that attracted in the first place.  

Marriages fail, friendships fail--relationships don't always work.  But the idea of perfect unions, of mutual caring and concern--those ideas sweeten the world and lend hope.

When that name pops up in your in-box or on your phone--cherish it.  Don't marvel at how easily and quicly someone's thoughts fly from there to here. The real wonder is friendship, and how it changes our days.