Most days it feels as though I've woken up in someone else's life. I don't recognize my surroundings or the people I interact with. Everything and everyone is new.
The constancy of being a mother, a parent is gone, far off in the distance. I suppose this must be something like what happens when your kids leave the nest, except I am the one who has left what was left of "the nest." What family I have is a long way off.
My former colleague and friend is no one I recognize. She's not the person I thought she was.
I don't suppose I've ever felt more alone.
But, even still, I am here. Me, myself, and I. I keep on reframing this as my golden opportunity to return to being the me that I neglected when I was swept up into the narcissistic vortex of my ex. His all demanding world meant that there was no me, by default. I didn't really exist. I only mattered in so much as I was there to do what he wanted or demanded, it was never about me.
And maybe this is where I wake up in someone else's life. And that someone else's is my own. I suspect that my own life feels foreign precisely because I haven't been here so much. I haven't lived the life I'm meant to live. Somehow I must find the courage to get back to owning my own life and make my way through all this weirdness to the new day.
Relationships are like onions. Chopping an onion renders it chemically reactive. Aromatic compounds burn the eyes, inducing the flow of tears. When the volatility is too much, you have to part ways from the Onion, leaving the room. Sometimes, you have to part ways from your Other. This blog is my perspective on my own leave taking from a chemically reactive relationship with a narcissist. Read on if you are not afraid of words that may chop, cut, or react with your lachrimal ducts.