Ispent a most restorative hour on the telephone last weekend. After a few months' hiatus, I spoke to my best friend from childhood, a woman whose life has turned out so much different than mine, a fellow geek who knows me as the bookworm from middle school and not the wife, mother and journalist I have become.

Though we live hundreds of miles apart, we can tell each other anything, picking up the strands of various subplots -- children, siblings, work, health -- right where we left off. We vent, we rage, we analyze, we pick apart. We laugh. A lot. Mostly, though, we just let it all hang out. And my, my, my, that feels so dang good.

With all due respect to degreed professionals, I find such conversations more beneficial than therapy, herbal supplements, doctors' visits or church services. They're cleansing, invigorating, energizing -- like a Red Bull for the soul.

RX FOR THE SOUL

We should all engage in friend-to-friend sessions on a regular basis, as diligently as we take our vitamins or go to the gym. We take medicines for cholesterol, high blood pressure and, in my case, a bum shoulder; why not fill a prescription for our psyches?

I've been blessed with a small, devoted group of friends. Some are dear ones I met at a church retreat; a couple are mothers of my children's friends. One was widowed young with children, as I was. Over the years, we've come to know each other's quirks and, perhaps more importantly, each other's yearnings.

None are yes people, and that is a trait I especially value. They encourage me when I'm right, slap me down when I'm off base. As disparate as their backgrounds are, they all excel at listening, an essential quality in a friend.

LIVING PROOF

It's only been in the last few years that researchers have explored the importance of friendship. Their studies have invariably found something most of us have long suspected: It's great -- and good for you -- to have friends.

In a study of nurses with breast cancer, friendship was associated with higher rates of survival. In a long-term study of Harvard men, the greatest indicator of happiness was the ability to sustain connections with others. Having a strong social network is right up there among the top 10 things we should do to live long, healthy lives.

``Friendship is an undervalued resource,'' a Virginia Tech gerontologist told The New York Times. ``The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.''

AN EASIER CLIMB

Last year, researchers at the University of Virginia examined student friendships. They outfitted 34 subjects with weighted backpacks, took them to the base of a hill and asked them to estimate how sharp the incline was.

The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness. What's more, the longer the friends had known each other, the less formidable the climb appeared.

I'm not surprised. As far back as I can remember, my friends have flattened the hills of my life.

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