We all mourn losses. Give your life enough years, and you will mourn many too, if you haven't already. I'm not very old by any means, but I feel that I've had more than my fair share of loss. I try to tell myself that loss makes me stronger. It makes me appreciate the good times even more. It's good to feel low because it makes the highs feel even higher.
A couple of weeks ago was Mother's Day, and as I wrote before, I took it even harder this year than most years. Not really sure why, as my life has been going really well lately. Maybe that's the time when [God, the universe, etc.] decides to knock you down a notch. That's what I feel like happened to me. I found myself on the Wednesday after Mother's Day still crying about my mom. Not sobbing uncontrollably, mind you. Just getting a bit teary-eyed a couple of times a day, and missing her. I started wondering what my problem was. It's times like this that I turn to my friends for support. I have some great friends. My girlfriends are the best, and take me out running and to coffee, even when they have other plans for the day they seem to fit me in and take care of me. This type of friendship is even more appreciated because I don't have a mom to turn to.
I also had just been on a great trip to California with my running partner of the last year. We had an amazing long-weekend running the trails of Mill Valley and eating good food. We attended a wedding reception in Napa. It was a great weekend with lots and lots of miles.
After getting back from the California trip soon afterwards was Mother's Day, and soon after my running partner seemed to not really want to run with me anymore. I invited him on a couple of runs and he said no (he said yes to one, but seemed out of sorts and not very interested to run with me). He set up runs with other people and didn't invite me along. I took it personally. Despite being a physically strong person, I am emotionally pretty sensitive. He was running with other people and I was running by myself, so I started running with other people too. But I wanted to run with him. I couldn't figure out what was going on.
I had a few 20-milers stacked up on my training plan, and I figured it would be easier to motivate and get through them if I had friends along. I invited a handful of friends, my running partner of the last year being one of them. A day later, I got a curt reply, something to the effect that he would be running similar mileage, but that I was too slow of a runner for him to go out with... huh? I took offense. I admit it. I reacted defensively and emotionally. How could I not? I was missing my mom and I just wanted to go run with my friend. Here he was being what I felt was insensitive and selfish.
Needless to say, the conversation turned brutal. The more I reacted to his insensitivities, the more harsh he got. I can only explain this as him trying to assert some "tough love", which I was not in any place to accept. I was too hurt, and the more the conversation escalated, the more hurt I became. He would "text bomb" me, saying that, "This is how it is. No negotiations. You are not allowed to comment, as I will not respond to your texts if you reply." What?!? I am still trying to understand this flip in his attitude. A supportive friend and running partner over the last year has suddenly, inexplicable dumped me. Some of the things he said to me were downright cruel and not worth repeating.
It hurts. It's sad. All I can say is, whatever he might be going through to display this type of behavior to a friend, I feel sorry for him. It's unacceptable as far as I'm concerned. You don't treat friends like that. I asked for a little bit of support and explanation and I got, "I'm too busy for you and I'm not willing to listen to your sob story." Wow.
I've received a lot of support through this from other friends which is very comforting. It will take some time for this sting to stop burning. I absolutely hate it when friendships fall apart. I want to believe that there is a bigger reason for this. I want to know if I could have done anything differently and supported him more, but I'm resigned to the fact that he is angry and I may never know.
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