I read an AP article the other day about friendships in the United States. It seems that among the general population, our circles of friends are getting smaller. I find in my own life that this is definitely true. As the article pointed out, even with technologies such as email, webphones, chat and pc cameras, people still aren't making the connections.

For one thing, people just seem to be too busy. How many times have I made a lunch date or playday for my child, only to have someone tell me they were too busy and forgot or something came up. Between church activities, family get-togethers, extracurricular activities for the kids and holidays, when is there time to sit down and have a cup of coffee with a friend?

Living in a household where my husband and I both work, I can completely understand a world where there simply is no time. But I have the lure of technology when I'm not doing what "needs" to be done. It's easy to go sit at the computer and write an email. It's easy to go play a game on Pogo and chat with a faceless, fake-named entity.

But then what happens to our friendships? They can be formed or even maintained via the internet, but what has happened to the human side of it? I cannot see my friend laugh through an email. I can't hug my sister who may or may not be crying - I would never know.

My circle of friends primarily consists of those in my home and though this can be seen as a very good thing, it's also scary. What about when my kids go away? What if I lost my best-friend, husband?

This is a great reminder for me to widen my circle of friends... to decide the laundry could wait one more day if it meant I could sit with a friend and laugh... to leave the keyboard behind a few times and feel human... to let my friends know they are precious to me.