The Weather Seems Fair.

Yesterday's post was a downer but I had to let it go. It is a human anomaly that we can feel isolated and alone even though we are surrounded by friends and family. I am typically not bothered by the fact that the majority of my friends and I are in radically different places in life and I am not blind to the fact that we have a lot of friends because we have kids the same age, not necessarily because we connect on another level.

Our friends are awesome and supportive and generous and generally kind but it is interesting the way kids bring people together. They are the great social equalizers and they force us, as parents, out of our shells and into the world. I have often wondered if I would be friends with some of the people I am friends with if it weren't for my children.

Because many of our friends are in radically different places right now it does generate this feeling of isolation and frustration. I thought, at one time, it was envy of their homes and cars and vacation plans and well behaved children (okay, there is a little of that) but a lot of the way I identify myself is through my work and that is the way my friends, generally, identify themselves as well. Without work part of my identity is lost, no, part of my self-worth and confidence is lost and to be in community with others who have that in tact takes its toll on my emotions.

But today is a new day, there is some work to be done, and the weather seems fair. Right now, in the silence of the morning life doesn't seem all that challenging or complicated or painful. It is just the eye of the storm.