The Importance of Friends and Family

I feel like I hit rock bottom this weekend (although I'm not going to assume I won't again or that I won't have lower moments later) and so I started looking around me for support.  

My sister is on vacation and so I really didn't want to bother her so I didn't.  Although she did reach out to me to test sending and receiving text messages without buying an internet plan (her connectivity will be very spotty) to see that she could still stay in contact with me.

My Mom has been a pretty good support.  She has encouraged me to call and listens and tries to understand even though she hasn't gone through something similar.

My closest local friend is married with two preschoolers, a full time job, her in-law in town, and has a busy week with other activities she had previously committed to.  So she doesn't have much time for me and she feels distant.  I had heard often that when someone gets divorced, they start losing married friends for various reasons.  I hope this doesn't happen here.  This friend means a lot to me.

I tried to reach out to a former colleague from the midwest who had been a great support when I went through relationship challenges before but she is also traveling.  I'll try to catch up with her whenever she gets back home.

So I've relied on a couple colleagues more than I normally would, both have been through divorces themselves so have been really solid to talk to.  But I don't have relationships with them outside of work so when the weekend came, I felt so alone.

So this morning, I thought of a friend from the midwest, a former colleague from more than a decade ago and reached out to her through Facebook.  It had been so long and we had never been super close but I knew she had also gone through a divorce.  She was the blessing I needed this morning.  After exchanging a few messages through Facebook she offered to talk by phone and we spent the next two hours sharing.  Both tears and laughter filled the call and left me with a strength I thought I had lost and a promise to connect again at least by next weekend, if not sooner.

Then I could focus the afternoon on making sure I got at least one meal in today (that gave me leftovers), did some more work making room for my stuff in the spare bathroom, and then walked to the grocery store where my lack of appetite meant I left with half a basket of food instead of closer to two baskets of food, almost all healthy food though.  Oh well, it will give me reason to walk back again another day.