One of the best things I’ve done so far this summer was as spontaneous as it was simple. With a free hour or so in my schedule before my taxi services were required, I picked up the phone, dialed my friend, Carol, and asked if she’d like to go for a walk.

On the surface, I know this sounds like no big deal. And truly, it wasn’t. But when you’re running through days that tend so often to become booked and overbooked, slowing down the pace for a spur-of-the-moment walk with someone you really care about can be an unexpected pleasure.

There was no getting ready, no picking out an outfit, no putting on makeup, none of that. I just pulled on a pair of sneakers, drove up to her house and off we went.

One of the advantages of where my friend lives in Newport is that, depending on your mood, there are so many different paths you can take all with their own strikingly spectacular scenery. Not that we thought about that. We didn’t. We just started out walking and talking like little girls and let the world unfold around us as it might.

We rambled through neighborhoods lined with Victorian houses, their tidy lawns and impossible gardens inviting us to take another look. We wandered over to bustling downtown streets brimming with traffic and tourists. That’s where we poked our heads into a shop to check out what was new, what was on sale, what we might come back for another time. And then off we headed toward the harbor, venturing out on a dock to get a better view of all the sailboats darting in and out, back and forth. Next, we found ourselves in an old cemetery resting for a few moments on a stone bench. As we read the gravestones all around us, we tried to imagine another life, another time.

But this is our time and we are catching up, talking our way from one scene to the next, meandering through all the news from our families and our work, sharing opinions on all the latest developments in our ever-changing world. What was happening right then between us, I realized, was something I’ve always held up in my mind as a litmus test of true friendship.

It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen each other, you can pick up right where you left off. And when you do, it’s okay to say exactly what’s on your mind.

No need to edit your thoughts. No need to filter your words. No need to posture and position and think twice. What you say is what you mean and you can rest assured knowing that the one who’s listening loves you enough to hear only the best in what you say and to see only the best in what you do. And on occasion, if you should happen to deliver anything less, here’s the best part: She understands you. She forgives you. She helps you to be better the next time.

On our way back to her house, she pauses to pluck a honeysuckle from a bush to show me that if you pulled the stamen just right it would taste like honey. And it actually did.

But there are some things that are even sweeter.

So before the summer slips away –– as it surely will –– I hope to stumble into a few more spontaneous pleasures. And I hope that you will, too. Take time to do something that’s not scheduled, not planned, an adventure that presents itself to you in the moment, just for no other reason than that you feel like it.

And that’s a good enough reason for me.

Rita Lussier can be reached at ReetsAL@aol.com or by mail c/o Features Department, The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain Street, Providence, RI 02902.