I was at a book reading one evening recently when the author was asked whether he remained in contact with people he had met on his travels.
His answer was that yes, he did remain in contact with some people. But he felt that this was not necessarily always a good thing. Email exchanges, for example, tend to become more brief, less interesting and less frequent until they fizzle out to occasional bounced platitudes that make you realise that there is nothing left to say. At times then it can be preferable to have a good experience, enjoy someone’s company, but then to move on and for both of you to leave it only as a happy memory.

This struck home with me as being really true, but as something that I had not realised before.
And then, later that evening, purely by chance, I bumped into one of the multitude of kind strangers who had hosted me when I was cycling round the world. A stranger who had become a good friend while I was with his family. I had no idea he was in England now, let alone that he would be in London. It was a shock, but a nice one for I had fond memories of fun times together.
Yet after the pleasure of saying hello we had nothing left to say, and both made our excuses to move on, our memories of a happy shared experience sullied slightly.

Sometimes it is best to live in the moment, appreciate for what it is, and not to try to prolong it when it is over.