Let’s face it: dating is tough, and will challenge even the most confident woman. Who hasn’t felt ill at ease on a date with a man you hardly know, or felt too intimidated to strike up a conversation with that hottie at your gym? And you’ve probably tried different ways to meet men, from the perils of dating at the office to the adventures of dating online. These methods can work, but as you know, they have obvious downsides.

I believe the saying, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans” has been credited to the soulful artist John Lennon.  Most of us would interpret that wisdom to mean that though we design grand plans, checklists, and blue prints for life all with the intent to create the life we think we want, that which is the other finds us.  We imagine, we dream, we plan, we schedule and then we begin to check off the boxes that contain our lives, but in the end isn’t it the interruptions that define it?

Maggie was my closest number one girlfriend in life. We’d shared everything that mattered, every day, for what felt like forever. And then, like a bad dream in slow motion, she quietly began her exit from my life, without ever uttering a single word about it to me. It retrospect, it was the perfect recipe of avoidance, unreturned phone calls, weekly plans suddenly cancelled, e-mails silently ignored.

The loss of a valued friend is a harsh reality—it hurts! When the ties of a connected and valuable friendship are severed, even temporarily, the results can be devastating. Emotional anguish between friends can spring from hurtful actions or circumstances.

Being that we are a “friendship site,” we at SocialJane.com always appreciate hearing expert opinion on friendship, and women’s friendships in particular. So we rounded up a host of questions based on common experiences of SocialJane.com members, and took them to an expert in the field of human behavior, Dr. Karen Dill.

Often women ask, “What would I do without my friends?” If we have first-class friends, they help us laugh; allow us to grieve and cry; listen to us when we are happy or upset; and share ideas about relationships, work, life. Indeed, healthy friendships may be one of the best things that can happen to us. Such relationships are joyful, fun, powerful, almost miraculous.