Relationship Struggles

Sometimes putting 'real life' into words can be powerful. Here, one of our members is describing relationship struggles with her young adult daughter.

Living with a struggling relationship with my young adult daughter.

Attempts to connect and converse bring the rubbing of coarse sandpaper across the skin of my soul.

She needs to control, avoid the pain, struggles to understand how relationship works.

The sandpaper does its work across my soul - abrasions and bruises appear, tiny droplets of blood seep to the surface. I pull away, shrink smaller, attempt to avoid the harshness of this contact.

This is not the comfort and familiarity, shared laughter, intimacy of family life, the reassurance of an old pair of slippers after a busy day, the welcome and safety at the end of the day as we shut the front door and close the world out.

She sees me as I pull away, is all too aware of my reaction, feels the rejection and abandonment all over again.

And in the midst of all this hurt we make eye contact and look to one another wanting to know how to make this work…

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