You’ll think you have time to fix that friendship later. Sometimes later becomes too late without anyone noticing.

Friendships rarely end in a decision. They end in a gap that keeps extending while both people assume the other will reach out, and at no point does either of them actually choose it. The lack of any clear ending is what makes the drift so easy to ignore until the thing has quietly gone cold.

If somebody has been on your mind, send one message without explaining the silence, since the explanation is usually what stops people sending anything at all. Keep it ordinary. If nothing comes back, you have still done your part, and that tends to sit better than wondering.