Life went on without me and I went on without it

An e-mail came through today rescheduling a monthly meeting at my old office.  A strange feeling passed over me as I saw life go on without me.  I imagined my empty office at the end of the hallway, the people's offices I would no longer stop in to chat, the meetings I would never again participate in, etc.

The average person spends more waking hours at work than anywhere else to the point where life can sometimes revolve around it.  And I think we all have a bit of a self-centered view of our place in those spaces.  So it feels weird to look back and imagine not being a part of something that once was so central, something I felt so central to.  It's a bit of nostalgia and emptiness wrapped into one.

It echoes a feeling I've been having related to my marriage that I haven't been able to put to words.  Although it's really not the same at all because the space of my marriage no longer exists at all.   So it's not as if the marriage went on without me but maybe the fantasy of the marriage did.  So it leaves these weird feelings of nostalgia and emptiness of what I imagine could have been.

I wonder if I have felt this before but never stopped to acknowledge it.  I've been through many transitions in my life.  Many spaces that once were central moved on without me as I chose different paths or life forced me another way.

It's interesting though that there is no pull to go back, not even the slightest.