Wednesday Words

Hubby comes home tomorrow and I can't wait. I've been feeling so lonely. I made it through the first couple of nights, but it hit hard yesterday. Taking the kidlets to Irish dance last night was such a relief. I really needed to talk to people over the age of nine. But this morning I was back to longing for adult conversation and company.

As I dropped off the kids off at school this morning, I realized I have a lot of acquaintances where we live, but not a lot of friends. Sure, people are friendly and nice, don't get me wrong, but I'm talking the kind of friends who chat on the phone (and not about kid play dates and stuff), get together for coffee or lunch or dinner, that sort of thing. I counted who I would consider that kind of friend. I came up with two. That made me sad.

So I picked up the phone and called one of my closest friends, who lives about forty minutes away. We talked about my dream big blog post and shared our goal lists with each other. We talked about her upcoming trip overseas. We also talked about friends. She said it was hard for her to connect on a deep level with people at her son's school. It wasn't that they weren't nice. They were, but they just didn't understand her creative pursuits and what her writing and photography meant to her. I gotta admit it was good to hear that from someone else, too.

Still I'm not really surprised to find myself in this position. I've never been a member of the in-crowd or popular group. I've always been the person who hung around the edges. An outsider, observing and taking it all in no matter what the group or activity. Maybe that's the writer in me or the engineer. Most likely a combo of both.

I have to admit, too, that I'm probably not the easiest friend to have. Think about it. Deadline times when I disappear into the cave for a few weeks at a time, a fantasy world running inside my head that can make me seem a little spacey at times, and a new climbing passion where I don't mind getting dirty, bruised and blistered as many times a week as I can.

Hmmm... a stressed, spaced out loner who'd rather be hanging out at the local climbing crag with people she meets on the Internet. Yep, exactly what your typical stay-at-home mom around here is looking for in a meet-at-Starbucks-after-school-dropoff-pal.

People say you can figure out what issues authors are dealing with in their own lives if you study their books. In my case, that's definitely true. Acceptance plays a part in many of my stories. Finding where we fit in, that sense of belonging, of being accepted for who we are. I tell people writing keeps me sane and is the best therapy! I'm not kidding when I say that.

If you're a writer, do you see personal issues coming out in your work? Is it something you recognize as your writing or after the fact or not until someone points it out to you? If you're a reader, have you ever noticed a particular theme in more than one of an author's works?