fine lines between “free” and “alone” and “lonely”
I have no parents and only sporadic contact with the rest of my family. Exceptions: my Elderly Relative, my locally-living nephew, and my sister Ann.
This makes me feel very free, and very lonely, in equal measure. Sometimes, when responsibilities pile up (as they are doing now) that family-free-falling-feeling makes me feel a tiny touch burdened.
I am tired of caregiving, and don’t know what to do about that. I miss my stuff that is now 14 months in storage, and a place of my own to put it. I need to hire a handyman and a carpet cleaner and need to go to a dentist and need to buy health insurance. And what about preparing for retirement?
Not that, if I had family, that any of this would necessarily be easier/solved, but at least there’d be more people to whine to.
I don’t know what to say except: Word.
And maybe give you some kind of supportive hand gesture (fist bump, fist pounding the heart a couple of times, like that).
We create our own families sometimes. I know that having living relatives does not always equal having the support of those people. And as times get tough….it is always great to be able to take a time out….with people you want to surround yourself with…..and one of those people for me is you!
I always enjoy your company….your insight and our conversations on things from the mundane to the intense are always engaging.
If I were able to choose the people I want to be called my family…..I would choose you.
Hugs hugs hugs. On the other side of the free lonely none small huge family spectrum, I have parents and huge numbers of family, and none geographically convenient and most prefer not to know about me. Come retire with me and Moya and David and Blake and assorted others one day. You craft, I mix drinks …