Yesterday was a rough day. I had to be the bearer of bad news to someone I deeply care about. The kind of news that a person should be involved in, not finding out about months later through a friend who read it on the internet.
It made me really grateful to the family and friends who are involved in my life and let me be involved in theirs. And it also made me think about those that I wish I knew better and spent more time with. Those people that I want to be there for instead of hearing about them through the grapevine.
So this is my plea to myself and to you: be in touch. Take the time to get to know the people you care about. Especially your family. Nothing is worth shutting out your family.
Now, I know that there are extenuating circumstances. There is abuse of many varieties that cannot and should not be tolerated. But family is still important. If counseling and therapy need to happen to stay in touch, do it. If supervised visits or 3rd party moderated letters are the only way to communicate, do it. People on both sides are hurt when individuals can't face up to reality and have the courage to deal with it. But it's also an ordeal that is best not to go through alone. And locking the closet door won't make the skeletons go away.
