"I think we need some space..."

We laugh at couples that are "having space", time away from each other to work out what they want.

'They'll never get back together,' we say, 'It's over.'

But it isn't always.
Sometimes space is just what the doctor ordered.

I've recently gone through a period of "space", not with my boyfriend or partner but with my best friend (I'm actually not entirely sure I can still call her that, it's almost become habit to do so but if I'm honest we havent been best friends in a while, though we're slowly (hopefully) coming back to it. However, that's a blog for another time).

In the past 6 months or so I've come to think of our friendship in more relationship-like terms (I'm sure she'd be horrified and severley weirded out to hear that, or considering she's been my best friend for 6 years, maybe not).
We "needed space". We had "grown apart". I was even strongly convinced that we needed to "break up", the only thing that kept me from doing so was the lack of opportunity. Now I'm really glad I didnt.
She's my best friend for a reason, even if our friendship didn't have the most conventional of starts and even if we didn't always get along.
We went through a lot together, and sometimes I forget just how much.
High School, for example, which in my book pretty much equates to "growing up".

I don't like it that she's upset, and I don't like it that I'm partially the cause.

I wish everything could be like it was because trying to forge a new relationship out of an old one is hard and, in this busy world, time consuming. Some days, I'll admit, I can't be bothered. It's too hard, too much work, not worth it all. Other days I feel like forging brand new relationships is worse so I work harder to keep the ones I already have.

I'll work harder in the future, I promise, but you know I can't speak for anyone else.