Masterpiece still in progress...

[Jer2911]

This is why it is so important to not really talk about your sitch with W's family or your family lest the info finds its way to W. If it had happened to me, I would have probably gone into monster mode and froze out Ms. Wonka with the silent treatment for it would have felt a "betrayal" to me.

Careful there, my friend.

Yeah -- had I known what I know now when all of this first started I might not have confided in this family member. But what's done is done... I can't take it back, but I can avoid doing any more damage by limiting what I say to her family members from here on out. I really am surprised that Monster didn't emerge once I admitted to it.

You're doing good in navigating through this quagmire.

Thanks. She really caught me off guard on Monday with this and I immediately thought I'd FUBARed royally with this. Of course, the civil, almost friendly behavior could all just be a mask to keep me off guard and to keep me under her control to some extent. I would not put that past her at this point -- I really don't trust anything she says or does right now.

Oh and I think I received some Divine intervention when I got very, very seriously sick in December 2003 where my late father had to carry me to the ER for some treatment. Sometime around March 2004, the MLC fog had lifted from me. In hindsight, I think the stress from my own MLC just caught me up and hit me right between the eyes over the holidays.

I do think a lot of MLCers' immune systems are compromised in some form. Good Lord, the pain and pressure we all feel during the crisis pales in comparison to the average person walking on a sidewalk in NYC

I can only imagine what kind of pain and pressure she is feeling inside. There have been fleeting moments when I feel as if I can actually see it all in her face... and it does make me feel sorry for her in spite of the pain she is causing me and the destruction she is bringing to our family.

I pray daily for some sort of divine intervention... nothing life-threatening, but something that helps her realize that what she has to work through is internal and not external... I know she has to continue on through the MLC and that I have my own journey that I need to continue on for now -- I clearly get that now and I don't want anything to interfere with the path that I am on right now because I really like where I am going... Do I want us to find our way back to each other? Absolutely! But it's very clear in my mind right now that neither one of us is prepared for that yet -- we both have a lot of work to do before that can happen... If it ever does.