A confession.

I was so happy that I got to hear from you today! Since our previous Skype session had been cut to 15 minutes because I had to get to work, I wasn't sure when I'd be taking to you next, and since it was already almost 11pm your time I had already tried to accept that we were most likely not going to talk today. But then, as usual, you surprised me!

I know you noticed that at the end of our conversation today I looked sad. I was feeling sad. My confession is that I want you to know why. When you talk to me about your divorce or how you and your ex treated one another I feel incredibly sad. Don't get me wrong, I want to always be there for you and I will listen when you need someone to just listen. In fact, I think that when you start talking about your past, the best thing to do, and what I usually do, is just listen. I know it is not my place to judge or weigh in, as it is in your past and maybe talking about it every once in a while is how you sort through or try to make sense of things. I just need you to know that sometimes it is hard to hear. It makes me sad to know that you were that angry, hurt, and sad at one point. On one hand, when you talk about how you treated Jasmin afterwards, I get it, I would have been pissed too, but on the other hand it scares me because I hope you never get angry and want to treat me that way. I was also a little disappointed that we had to end our conversation on that kind of note.

Mike, I care about you and enjoy the time I get to talk to you immensely! I want you to always feel like you can talk to me about anything. I guess my only request is that when you want to talk about your past relationship, you pause and are just mindful of why you are bring it up. Is it relevant to an issue at present or are you just letting out pent up anger? I'm trying to explain this now so that if someday I ask you to stop, or change the subject you might have a better understanding as to why. It is not that I do not care, the opposite really. It hurts to hear the pain you still carry from a memory that I can never erase.