Just a little envy...
you can’t help but feel it for Tara. Tara is my childhood friend, who has grown from a vivacious teenager into a graceful woman in the prime of her life. Her social media is overflowing with pictures of a sea-kissed beach house, exciting travels, and beautiful, well-settled children.
And the icing on the cake? A handsome, indulgent husband, who seems to hold his pride in his wife as closely as the omnipresent beard he has always sported. That beard has changed colour from ebony to salt-and-pepper, but it seems just as resolute in character. In times when long, happy, chemistry-laden marriages seem so rare, it is heartwarming to see this couple becoming more connected by their shared goals, year after year.
What could be their secret, people wonder? And that little envy melts into a warm puddle of good wishes, as naturally as they spring from the human heart. A few weeks ago, I received an urgent call from a sobbing Tara. She told me that her life and world had fallen apart.
I immediately asked if there was a medical crisis. “No,” she answered, with anger I had never heard in her voice. Her husband of 30 years, Raj, was having an affair with another woman.
How devastating it must feel to be betrayed like that — how utterly traumatic. I shared in her shock and pain. However, over the next few weeks, I asked her to focus on whether she wished to heal.
After a few days of reflection, she told me that she found she was becoming defined by this tragedy.