Muddle, you are so welcome! Remember our motto "No one gets left behind"! (That's kind of a strange motto when you think it comes from the 7 th Cavalry who were all slaughtered and everyone was left behind!) It just occurred to me that there is a book out there you might want to get a hold of (yes, I appear to have a book for every occassion!)called "Why Can't You Read My Mind?" by Jeffrey Bernstein. He says "Don't let these toxic thought patterns come between you and lasting love: the all or nothing trap, catastrophic conclusions, the should bomb, label slinging, the blame game, emotional short-circut, overactive imagination, head game gamble, disillusionment doom. I thought of you when I opened the book and read the following: "To develop real empathy for your partner, you must at one time or another permit yourself to feel frightened, overwhelmed, or hopeless. Your own sense of strength comes from embracing your own sense of vulnerablility. Similarly, being empathetically strong for your partner and being able to identify with his or her sense of vulnerability is rooted in accepting, and not denying, your own pain and vulnerablility" I think you've been doing well with this Muddle! Maybe I'll give this one a read myself. Take care.
