Reunions are complicated. Sometimes you don’t realise just how much you’ve missed someone or something being in your life until they’re there in it again. The joy of reunion is also a reminder of the separation that had preceded it, it is an unusual experience where feelings of loss and gain rise up together at the same time. Not surprising why so many people decide to give their school reunions a miss, perhaps the loss is greater than the gain. There is a lot going on in the midst of a reunion.
Learning to live without something or someone is no easy task but once it has been mastered it is difficult to let go of even when the object of our affection comes back. Our methods of self preservation are vast and for the most part quite invisible to the outward eye. A reunion therefore highlights the very reason why we have had to preserve/protect ourselves in the first place. There are however some unique reunions where all we feel is the happiness of being together again, and none of the other stuff. These are the best reunions of all and show that even in separation there really was not a loss but a mindfulness that has kept the other very much around.
It is not only human relationships that involve reunions. There are all kinds of reunions going on around us all the time. I am in the middle of one right now as I write this long overdue post and realise how much I’ve missed doing this and yet I didn’t feel this way while I wasn’t doing it but only now as I am doing it again. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the things we are missing even if we don’t realise we’re missing them, especially then in fact.
Posts
