between me & my SO – for the first time in about a year I actually feel really close to him lately. After years of a consistently tumultuous relationship, this period of calm is so welcome, and so wonderful. I’m glad we hung in together to this point – there seems to be room for individuality now, which wasn’t readily accepted or encouraged til now. I can feel myself opening up again – I feel more positive and inspired – I’m even working through The Artist’s Way (so slowly though) and am seeing a vocational counselor because I’m finally in an emotionally free enough place to start exploring ME and what I want to do with my (work) life. And perhaps because of that, when M and I do come together, I’m enjoying his company more and we’re finding little ways to help each other out and appreciate each other that we had all but stopped doing right up until a couple of weeks ago! There’s still lots of work to be done to become a ‘healthy, functional’ couple, and I imagine the storms will kick up again eventually, but for now, I am so grateful for this tender bud of the ‘new us’.