You are welcome, Archie S. Jones:

I wonder what has been so meaningful to you in the responses in this thread?

🤔 Anita

Dear Don’t-Hand-Out-Candy (No More), Me:

I’m glad to read you’re okay. Thank you for telling me that you’re okay 🙏

🤔 What makes okay, in your world, in your mind these days?

I just returned from a rare social get-together, seen a few familiar faces, and a few new ones. Not very focused because I had 2 glasses of wine

Please tell me more, me, anything you feel like saying 🙏

Anita

Hey Olive:

Don’t know if you’ll be reading this. Maybe you’re gone from this thread for good, a thread you started 9 days ago (Oct 22), shared so.. so.. so much, and then.. gone 2 days later (Oct 24).

In case you’re reading: last you shared, you wanted to Travel AND you want to Preserve the relationship with Sam.

Sam seems less invested in travelling than you are, somewhat fearful perhaps of the Europe travel, finding comfort in his small-town familiarity (?)

No wonder you feel the way you do. You wanted a travel adventure to Europe with your boyfriend. Instead, you are stuck in his small town (USA)?

Obviously, a clear, factual conversation is needed to take place between you and Sam (has it already taken place)?

Questions that need to be answered:

* What is the actual timeline for travel?

* How committed is Sam to that vision?

* What concrete steps are being taken?

* How long are you, Olive, realistically willing to wait?

* What would need to happen before Sam feels ready to go?

* How much money does Sam want to save before leaving?

* Is he thinking months, a year, or longer? What timeline feels realistic to him?

Interestingly, you said that you’re considering traveling solo. This is just what I did so many years ago, first, at 24 years old. I started with London, no planning. Walked a whole lot… Luxemburg is so small, I think I walked through the whole tiny country. Brussels: there was a train/ transportation strike when I was there (1985), so I walked and hitchhiked to France. Tried to leave Paris ASAP once I got there.

I can’t imagine doing what I did if I was not traveling solo.

Hoping to read from you again, Olive.

Anita

Good late Saturday morning and Happy Halloween!

We first talked on Sept 18, 2026: more than TEN years ago.. We were both a whole decades younger!

My goodness, the girl.. well, now woman for sure, ten years later broke up with her guy 🤔 That was a very long relationship, wasn’t it. I understand that it puts you in an amazing mood.

So, you’re thinking of travelling to China with your supervisor for a vacation (or without him but visiting his family?) and Taiwan as well?

How are you otherwise, please tell!

🤔 Anita

Robi, Oct 29: “I want to escape from the responsibility of growing up, being someone’s partner, not always having things my way”-

Anita, Oct 30: What’s below is me telling it like it has been 4 me. Please take from it what you will, or skip it alltogether.

As I write below, I’m not thinking about how it may apply to you. It’s strictly my experience which took place way, way before Robi existed and way before I knew Robi existed.

I’m sharing it here, developing my thoughts, because it may help me further, and maybe (just maybe) it’ll help you too.

As an adult (adult strictly in the physical sense), I escaped or avoided the responsibilities of growing up simply because I NEVER got to be a carefree child to begin with.

I think that if you get to be a carefree child, then over time, the MF factor 😅.. that is, the Maturity Factor can develop. But when a person never got to be a child, how can the person become an adult?

There’s a step missing. I mean, first- a child (carefree, safe, loved), then- an adult (caring for others, extending safety, loving).

When a child never got to have anything going one’s way (I didn’t except in my day- dreamings), how can that child become an adult who is able and willing to experience MORE things NOT going her way

It’s the missing link between a childhood that wasn’t there, and an adulthood that’s supposed to be built on top of that haven’t yet experienced childhood.

Yes, a person can be old and never having experienced the basics of what childhood is.

In other words, I never got to be a child, and yet society expects me to be an adult, and compares my (lack of) achievements to those who did have a childhood?

I mentioned grieving last night. I am grieving never having been a child. First, acknowledging that indeed, true as can be, I never had the opportunity to be a child.

So, now, having grieved it enough, no longer does a part of me- however under my awareness- waiting to still experience that missed opportunity.

There’s acceptance following grieving, and suddenly (it appears as if it’s sudden), I’m no longer waiting for a childhood.. for a redo of whatever the f8ck (your “word”, ha- ha) it was in place of a childhood.

👧 👩‍🦳 Anita

(referring to the title of your thread): What is your life like now, Nichole?

How are you, Sleipnir?

Thank you, Peter 🙂

I hope you’re still feeling lighter, The Meditator, a Lighter Meditator 🙂?

I feel lighter today after reading the “The Illusion of the Seeker” portion of your recent post, Peter (“The Mirror of the Moment” thread). I feel a developing new identity and new relationship with my thoughts:

I am not my thoughts: I am the one choosing which thoughts to entertain, and which to abandon.

Lighter Anita