I’m getting more family-oriented as I get older, and perhaps have learned to include them more in my life instead of roaming around the edges like some outlaw lured by prairies to spend just little bits of life in desert towns.
In response to a niece’s questionnaire sent to family and friends for personal insight into her life for a Psychology paper as she closes in on her Master’s, I sent off what I could, apologizing for my lack of presence in her life when I was in the wild west of my life and spent my mental time in vulgar red-dress-dancing on the tabletops in old bordertown saloons. But this reply I just received back from her made my day:
“Wow, maybe you should go into psychiatry. You brought out many things that I could not have been objective enough to discover. My life seems to make more sense when I read your responses. You connect from my early years and my life now and although my feelings about myself would probably be more negative, I think I have finally started to learn to accept the truths and not get stuck in my own black hole that I create. Thanks for taking the time. I know that you are busy but you were probably the biggest adult inspiration in my life. I don’t know if I could have had as free of a spirit and openness of mind if I didn’t have you.
Thanks, love, E”
Ah, family…
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology