The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Old friends communicate mostly in shorthand and silence. What passes between them is not carried by the sentences, which are often trivial, but by everything both already know, and that is why a short exchange with the right person can do more than an hour of explaining to somebody new.

It also means the words matter less than people fear. If you have been putting off contact because you do not know what to say, say something small. Getting the wording right is not the task, and the meaning arrives with the fact of the message.