Relative Something

It is now one week since Cyndie came home to visit for the holidays. It has been enlightening for me. After only two months of living in separate cities, it appears that I have established a new comfort with my solo routine around the house. Having another person living here again is messing with my style.

There are the usual conflicts, like needing to share space in a bathroom again, or our opposing method of managing stuff around the house. The second morning after Cyndie had been home, I was going to walk into the laundry room to get something that I keep in there, but I was stopped short by piled boxes she chose to store in the room. I discovered that I had forgotten what it is like to come upon these types of little surprises.

More sinister, are the periods of time when she is in town, but not home. Do I wait to eat until she gets home? I find myself suspending my activity and my decisions in order to accommodate her, not knowing what time she will actually return. In the months that she has been in Boston, I can see now, I have become more decisive in my activities.

With the sorrow of being alone, comes the joys of independence.

It is a tangle of competing interests. I doubt it is any different than if we had never tried to live apart, but it does shed new light on the subject, our spending time living alone. I bet there are a lot of military spouses who have far greater insights on this than I ever will.