Have you ever noticed how busy the world seems to be these days? Do you ever find yourself feeling just a little lost or maybe feeling that you might have missed something? Chances are you have.

Time has been called our most precious commodity. It flies by even faster than the speed of light. Before we realize it, one year or two or even ten years have gone by. Even with the best of plan, we do miss a lot.

Not only is this an incredibly fast-paced society, we also live in a highly mobile society. My parents lived in the same house, with the same phone number for over 50 years. The number of people who can say that are becoming increasingly rare.

According to my mail carrier, most people on his route tend to move every two to three years. It is, indeed, becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with everybody we care about.

Job changes, schooling requirements, family situations and things like all of these can contribute to our decision to relocate. With every change in our lives, we have new schedules, new responsibilities and new demands on our time. We continually find ourselves in new business, social and community situations.

Unfortunately, one of the things that can get lost in these fast-paced days is our friendships. While we meet new people all the time, we also frequently lose contact with our old friends. We don't mean to, it just happens that way.

What is sad is that we often lose our connections without even realizing it. Has that ever happened to someone you know?

Now, stop for a minute and remember a special friend from your past that you haven't been in contact with, maybe from high school or college, maybe from one of your first jobs.

Remember the laughter you used to share, the encouragement you used to give to each other, the jokes, and the phone calls just because. Those were some good times, weren't they? It really would be a shame to lose that, wouldn't it.

Good friends are incredibly difficult to replace. Can you think of somebody you would like to find again?

One of the Life Lessons out there for us to learn is that it's often much easier to take care of something you already have than to try to replace or re-create it.

If you are not planning to stay in the same home for the next 50 years, there are several things you can do now to stay connected with the people that are important to you.

One of the easiest and least expensive ways to keep connected is to rent a post office box. For long-term permanent address concerns, I would recommend an official U.S. Post Office station over one of the popular Mail Box stores simply because of the stability factor.

Due to the inherent nature and size of the federal system, changes are infrequent and slow when they do occur. Since the economy has direct bearing on the commercial success (or failure) of the individual MailBox stores, you will find that they can and do move more often, resulting in address changes which can mean loss of contact for you.

There are several advantages to a federal Post Office. They can be very inexpensive. The smallest size box is less than $30 for an entire year, with the cost increasing as the size of the box does.

Their security is above average at most locations. Your mail is better protected from loss, theft or tampering. You can pick up your mail 24/7 at many stations, or arrange to have it forwarded to you at no cost for first class or priority items, minimal charges for the rest.

Another benefit the post office provides is to hold your mail for you. With that service, you will be able to let your postmaster know that you will not be picking up your mail for an extended period of time and they will keep it safe for you and not return it to the senders.

You will want to check with your local office as to what length of time they will hold your mail. Should you be out of the area and find you need to make changes, there are simple forms available at any post office to help you manage your mail.

You will find the smaller stations much easier to work with than the large ones. Usually they have shorter lines and more time to devote to each customer.

Another great opportunity for us to maintain our friendships and business contacts can be found in the realm of the wireless. There are wireless hot spots at many resturants and other public and privete buildings for your computers.

Thanks to the recent change in cell phone regulations, we can now take our cell phone number with us when we make a geographical move. With call forwarding, we can maintain our connections even with the many phone numbers we frequently find in our lives.

Many people today are choosing one of the larger internet providers with the specific intent to maintain an email address for an indefinite length of time. With the ability to register domain names for extended period, keeping connections just gets easier and easier for us.

What else is exciting about the advances in technology is that the gadgets are getting smaller, less expensive and include many new and wonderful features like instant messaging, live photos, voice mail and more fun things to come. All affordable and easy ways to keep in touch.

Will the post office, cell phones or the internet be around in 50 years? Who knows, but it sure would be easy for you to make some arrangements today with the specific intentions of making it possible to keep the connections with those you care about.

After all is said and done, an unexpected contact from a long lost friend is guaranteed to make your day brighter. And that's what it is all about!