We went to dinner at an awesome Ethiopian restaurant with friends then had dessert at their house as well.
We don’t see them as much as we used to.
We used to see them every week with the spiritual group we were in.
I think they’re bummed we don’t hang out more, but they left the church, then the group. We eventually left the church too and created a new group.
For me, I feel amazing that we went through something that significant and maintained our friendship. Stuff like that can be bombs that blow up in friendships. So I have a different perspective. I am content. I have accepted that life changes. I did not go to this new church, but I am happy w/ the changes that have happened in our lives.
I think about these things quite a bit. It seems signficant that we went through a major change and kept our friendship. It seems significant the group didn’t blow up before we left as well.
If there is evidence that this path works or is life-giving, this to me is an example, more than if we’d stayed together and been happy-happy. I feel we needed to each go different ways for a while or maybe permanently. For some reason, this is not quite how they view it.
They love us, so they don’t stay too frustrated. But I think they are conflicted by their love for us and frustration we didn’t come along.
On my part, I am pretty thrilled that we kept all these relationships mostly intact as the inevitability of life changes happened.