I Miss You, not My Idea Of You.
I've grown beyond weary of the "New Age" idea that "everything is inside of you".
It's not.
Life is within and all around. It floods our senses, it feeds us, it hurts us, and it heals us.
The most recent ideation of this I saw was that we aren't really missing people who are no longer in our lives, we are "missing the way they made us feel".
No.
This prioritization of of feelings as the ultimate reality needs to stop. Not only is it a disconnect from life, love, longing, and grief—it's a tad narcissistic. If your "feelings" are all that matter, then we get to simply dismiss very real experiences and even people. We get to "cancel" whatever doesn't "feel" right, and we get to live in ever-shrinking emotional echo chambers in name of continued comfort and my favorite the elusive search for "high vibration".
Nope. Not playing it.
When I miss someone... I miss them.
I miss their voice, I miss the sensations of their body close to mine, I miss sharing drink, food, and ideas. I miss their smell. I miss their entire essence—not my internalized projection of them. I miss the reality of their existence in my life, and I nurture and tend to my feelings about them, as well.
People get to be unique and hold special positions in your life. Enough of this isolationist "everything is a mirror" nonsense.
You are not a reflection.
You're real.
You matter, and so did they.
(shared originally on Facebook October 29, 2023
Image: Narcissus by John William Waterhouse