Layers

I walked into this afternoon's writing meeting feeling pretty dark. I almost didn't notice the beautiful old cat standing sentinel at the doorway of my friend's new cottage - a sweet, fluffy creature who looked like he wanted a good long snuggle. As I crossed the threshold, I was quiet and withdrawn despite the warm greetings of friends.

It took an hour of hearing amazing stories and a LOT of laughs from those kind souls to get me out of my funk.  

Man, this past week was rough.

E and I adjusted to the new time zone with many sleepless nights. Hubby had to work on a lot of projects, so I didn't have a lot of down time - and had to hit the ground running with long hot days spent with a bored/tired/cranky boy in our tiny house. I also had to deal with the revelations from a project that went sour - end assessment: it wasn't a good fit. All I will say is: Type A personality (me) does not mix well with people in love with their own errors. I won't say "never" as far as working with these people again, but I will be cautious. (Also: the work didn't pay anything, so it wasn't logical to VOLUNTEER for a daily headache.)

I added ten minutes to my running time this morning. That worked for a bit.

But it was the time with friends that gave me the much-needed boost. Today, I needed to listen. And in return, they listened, when I started to open up more about what had happened during my forty days out of the country. Yeah, all that stuff. I felt my feelings creak out of me as I talked. I realized as I sat there how much I ABSORBED. How much I kept inside.

No one judged. No one said anything about right or wrong, good or bad. We talked about how each person's experience is different. We talked about just how difficult and amazing life can be. We talked about how lucky we really all were to have found each other as friends - and how blessed our lives are, looking down at the whole picture.

It's important to see everything with layers. As much as I'd like to put annoyances and annoying people into a box marked "YUCK," there's really nothing like that in real life. Things...PEOPLE...are more complicated than that.

I also realize I can get quite prickly analyzing these layers all by my lonesome.

Yes, even Type A cranky Scribeymoms need friends. And I am lucky to have found them.

Thank you, amigas - and to more happy Sundays, despite it all,

Sincerely,

Scribeymom