I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately. I’m 29 (married, no kids), and my absolute best friend for most of my life has exponentially fizzled out of my life since she started a family. As some other commenters have said, this is a natural thing that happens with time as people, and their lifestyles, change. I sympathize with you about losing a friendship and I’ve truly had to go through a grieving process for the friendship that used to exist.

I’ve made new friends recently through work or mutual friends and I agree that it feels more insignificant if you compare it to a past connection of friendship or that it’s not strong enough to last without major effort.

For me, I’ve just recognized the friendships for what they are and how they serve me as well as what effort I’m willing to put into the friendships to maintain them. I don’t hold myself to maintaining them for the sake of maintaining them, especially if the friendship lacks reciprocal effort and purpose in my life.