Are you in a new era of friendship?

Empty nesting and the pandemic have changed my friendship landscape

In my last newsletter I recommended Catherine Newman’s Washington Post piece, “The beauty of friendships in parenthood” which contains some hard-won wisdom.

Try to learn from your mistakes. “Unsolicited advice is the same thing as judgment” is a truth I understood too late in the case of one damaged friendship. We don’t need to be perfect to stay in each other’s lives, though. We can swim toward the shore of longevity through the unnerving shallows of our children not getting along with each other for a day or a month or a year. We can screw up and apologize and be forgiven. We can forgive and reorient and move forward. We can grow apart and set new boundaries and still want to spend time together.

I’ve been thinking about this paragraph a lot, especially that bolded line.

Did it comfort you as it did me?

Late summer hike with friends in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon

With school events and family-centered activities behind me, my parent friendships have changed. Some have deepened in…