LL—I would lose it if my baby cat was crying for me. I struggled a lot with parental approval, control, role reversal—it isn’t easy. You keep going with what you need to do for you. I hope you find a way to be at peace.

I once found myself on a crisis line because I couldn’t deal with a guilt trip someone was putting on me. He told me he had been through the same thing, and that he just had to say that he couldn’t live like this. It’s funny how that never even occurred to me—I simply accepted that I had to.