Nice thread idea.

So far I am doing okay. I'm busy, busier than I've been in a long time. I'm also enjoying all this holiday stuff for the first time in nearly 5 years. Both those things help.

I saw T last on the 18th and she is out from the 19th til the end of the year. :-(

Mostly I am okay and then sometimes I miss her so much and I feel so apart from her. If I can, I talk about it with someone who understands.

Also I spend time thinking of her, or journal. I don't normally journal much but she suggested it as a way of feeling connected so I thought I'd at least journal during the time that would normally have been our session time. But when I first felt the longing and missing, I picked up my new journal bought just for this time, and began writing to her. I went on about my cat sitting beside me, loving me but not quite trusting me, so he loves to sit near me but doesn't like to be trapped by my holding him. He loves my attention and affection and loves when I talk to him and throw his toys for him to fetch, play with him. I just kept writing my observations and interpretations and in the end it seemed I was describing me and T metaphorically through me and kit-T (kitty).

I also called her office number the very first day, to listen to her recorded message like I do sometimes, just to hear her voice. I was going to tell her that I was wishing I had asked her to say pointedly to me "I will be back". I will see her on her first day back, Jan 2nd but that seems so far off sometimes. So when I called I was tickled to hear that she'd changed her message to say that she will be out beginning the 19th and "I will return on Wed Jan 2nd"!!! I laughed and left her a message that I was calling to say I'd wished I'd asked her to tell me that she will be back and how delighted I was to hear that in her recorded message that I can now hear whenever I want to!

She is available via cell phone, as she told me several times in the sessions prior to the break. She'll be out of town but accessible. I really don't want to invade her precious time off though and I think I'll be okay.

It's kind of a good opportunity to reflect and recall the many meaningful things she has said and done that have made a difference to me, have comforted me, soothed me, enlightened me.

I try not to think where she is or what she is doing. I choose to picture the room and her chair, empty, like when she has gotten up to adjust the thermostat out in the hall.way... She'll be right back.