Gwen and I have just returned from a quick road trip to the Fraser Valley and then a small lakeside area near Kamloops. Our main purpose was to reconnect with family members we had not seen for many years.

Perhaps I had been reluctant to reach out because I felt guilty about having allowed so much time to pass. But the visit reminded me of something worth sharing: if you have lost contact with people who were once important to you, don’t wait to reconnect.

People my age have lived through almost 1,000 cycles of the moon, and we won’t see all that many more. There comes a point when putting things off risks making reconciliation impossible.

Friends and family can drift apart for all sorts of reasons—pride, misunderstandings, embarrassment, or simply the passage of time. But when a relationship once mattered, it may still be worth recovering. Smile when you do it. You’ll likely smile afterwards.

There is no better time to act than now.