It's been a month since my wife left the house. We decided to separate a few months ago, but she stayed in the same house for a couple months, before leaving. Over the weekend a friend of mine was commenting on how much freedom I have now. I replied that f reedom is great but the purpose is lacking. What am I doing now? Who do I want to be and where do I want to go? It brought tears to my eyes. My ex is now in a new relationship. I partly envy her as it would be a good distraction to be in a new relationship. But I also feel that there would be a missing process if I would just jump into a new exciting thing. I mean I don't really have a choice, and I doubt that I would be able to resist someone who would be attracted to me, but for the moment it feels better to be single. I have a hard time dealing with day to day stuff. I've always been not great about that stuff to start with, but now being alone it's overwhelming. Not that there is way too much to do, but I do loose focus when something needs to be fixed. If my car break, if there is a problem with the hot water, if there is something missing, like food stuff or something to be paid, it takes my focus away really easily. And living in the middle of nowhere agaravate this even more. There is always more to do. In a world that I already complain is too individualistic, now I am stuck even more alone, with my cat only. I am gald my daughter is often here, half the time, it does give me more of a purpose, although when she is around I also focus more on her needs than my work and other stuff that needs to happen. The house is quite the mess when she leaves. For now there isn't much thoughs given about raising her, I'm more pampering her to all her needs, which is not sustainable, for me or for the relation. I have this desire to do more. Do more for my own well being. Meditate more, create more, more mantra, train more, more pushup, rope skipping, more violin, I should go out more, see more people, cook healtier and more. As if this mild depression I am in, would be eased by doing more. But I realize at the moment, I have to do less. Rest more, I need to sleep for a week! Less screen too. Focus on my health and well being, my daughter's well being, my work and my clients, theatre play, teaching karate... The house improvement, and winterizing, chopping and chording the wood for the winter. My car that needs to be replaced... There is already a lot just with the essential. Once I have a grasp on this, I can look in doing more... But doing more of what? This sense of purpose is definitely lacking. I realize how my life was oriented toward making my wife happy. I wasn't even paying much attention to my daughter, as my wife was generally unsatisfied. A lot of my time was around avoiding getting her in a worst situation, or caring for her when she wasn't well. When everything was good, I could focus on my work for a while, knowing that this was just for a moment. I still worried what she would think about my action. I sat too long in front of the tv, will she be mad? I have to re-adjust my fear, she is gone. For the number of time that I have these knew jerk reaction worried about how she will react if/when she knew what I was doing, I realize that I was living in fear of her. A slow trauma, a strange abuse. I know she wasn't abusing me willingly. But the way her love was conditional to some unknown algorithm made me really doubt that I was a good person. She said to me so many time, that trust is something you can gain. It was liberating telling her that if after 15 years, if she still didn't trust me, there was nothing I could do about it. Still, with all that negativity in our couple, I preferred to stay in an unhealthy relationship rather than being alone in this world. Today I don't really know anymore. Of course the memories are fading away, the discomfort that I used to feel seems far away. But is it worth being alone? This place is beautiful, but if you feel alone, there is no better place to freak out about it. It's so quiet, out of this world. The winter will settle in, the mountain will loose its colors, there will be even less noise, less activity. Only the crackling of the wood stove, the bubbling of the broth, the purring of the cat. I am often looking forward for the winter. I am unsure this year how that will feel. Will I be warmed by someone's love? Can my own love warm myself?