Get Bit by the Keep in Touch Bug

Keeping in touch with friends can be difficult, especially when distance is an obstacle. Interaction is what keeps a relationship alive, but who says it has to be face to face interaction. If you can commit to keeping touch with friends even when they don't live close by, you'll find a world of ways to help you keep your commitment. Here are a few suggestions:

A Phone Call Away
Your friends are just a phone call away. You don't have to talk every day to stay friends and keep in touch. Some friendships will stay alive with a phone call once a week, some with once a month and some friendships will stay alive with a phone call every six months or so. Figure out what works for you and your friends and make a priority to keep in touch. If you can't get a hold of your friends, leave a message and let them know you care. They will call you back. The nice thing about phones these days is that almost everyone has one, and it is usually a cell. Most cell phone plans have some sort of text messaging, so if you aren't the talk on the phone type, send your friends a text letting them know you are thinking about them. A couple of minutes of your time once a month to call your friends isn't much to ask of yourself and if you really want to keep your friends, it will totally be worth it.

Pony Express Lives On
You would hardly know it with the advent of the internet, but the post system is still in place and the mail man still deliver six times a week. If you don't have time to call your friends, how about dropping them a note in the mail? There is something about getting a card or letter in the mail that just isn't the same from any other quarter. If you want to keep in touch with your long-distance friends, send them a card occasionally. When there is a special occasion coming up like their birthday, anniversary, or Christmas, you don't have to be there to stay friends. You can send them small gifts in the mail or shop online and have it delivered, gift-wrapped and all, right to their door. A note or small gift in the mail says miles about your friendship when you can't be there for them.
Get it Together
Long-distance friends stay friends best when they are able to get together periodically. Plan a once-a-year get together with long-distance friends. Go camping, spend a day together at a theme park, or plan an adventure, but do something that you will all like and that will strengthen the bonds of your friendship. Together time is bonding time, and that's what friends do who stay friends.

The Online Miracle
With the advent of the internet, staying friends has become easy as pie. Email, IM, Social networking, blogs, and personal websites have not only been a part of a technological revolution, but also of a friendship revolution. Most everything online is free, so not only is it easy to stay friends with people over a distance, but inexpensive too. The online tools available make is easy to keep and touch and stay friends, so take advantage of it and set aside time once a week or once a month to update your blog (or Facebook page) with what's happening in your life and read and comment about what's happening with your friends.