Having spent 10 years in intensive caregiver mode, I’ve now come back into the world. One thing I’m notice over the last 1 1/2 years is that I’ve changed so much. I’m not who I was when I started this journey.
What it has looked like is that the friends I had before and somewhat during my caregiver years are fading away as friends. They are different. I am different.
I did have friends that helped me along the way. And yet now that the season has changed, we don’t know how to relate anymore.
It’s had its hard moments, but I realize it’s been good for things to change. I am so different, changed by the fires of caregiving, that not only is it a new season without my mom, it is a new season for me. And a new season means new friends. New relationships. New ways of doing life.
Right now, the “new” hasn’t come. It’s more that the old is gone and is fading away.
But I realize it is needed.
Not sure if anyone else has gone through something similar. But if you are, know that I am too.
