Some friends belong deeply to a season without belonging to every season.

Certain friendships are made by circumstance, a job, a city, a difficult year, a shared stage of life, and they are genuine while that circumstance holds. When the circumstance ends, so does much of what the friendship was built on, and neither person did anything wrong. Expecting every close friendship to be permanent turns natural endings into failures.

When a season closes, thank the person in whatever way you can and let the intensity decline without apology. Some of these come back later. What made them good was real even if it was not perpetual.