It Wasn’t Complicated After All
My son is spending Christmas away for the first time.
Twenty-nine years of shared rituals, and now a quiet change.
I didn’t have an issue with him going. That part felt clean.
What hurt was something else.
I wasn’t held in mind.
Plans were made — with friends, with travel, with what came next — and somehow I wasn’t part of the orientation. When dates were offered later, they landed flat. January 25 didn’t feel like a celebration. It felt like a placeholder.
The meaning that came immediately was familiar:
I don’t matter. I’m not a priority.
Fresh Eyes
When we think we know someone at work—who they are, how they act, what they’ll do—we stop actually seeing them.
We freeze them in our minds:
She’s always like this.
He never follows through.
They don’t get it.
And just like that, the relationship hardens. The space between us gets smaller.
Even when the story we’ve written about them is a positive one, we’re still holding onto the past. And that past doesn’t leave much room for anything new to emerge.
Wonder and curiosity are the doorways to connection.