"No, he's your friend"

Many years ago, I happened to run into the mother of a friend of mine who I had not seen in awhile. We briefly chatted and at the end of the conversation I asked her to say hi to my friend on my behalf. "No, he's your friend," she replied, "you tell him." Her response was blunt, but it taught me an important lesson. If you want to stay friends with someone, you have to take the initiative and make the effort to maintain the friendship. Too often we simply allow friendships to fade and die by laying the responsibility for growing the relationship solely on the other person. Yes, the other person does have a share of the responsibility, but that does not give us an excuse to be negligent on our part. Reach out to them. Talk to them. Don't let that friendship wither just because you couldn't be bothered to stay in touch.