As I enjoy my vacation in Colorado, staying with my Austrian-American host family and going on daily adventures either with groups or on my own out in nature, I realize that, on one hand, I really have two or three chosen families, while on the other, I am spontaneously able to open up, meet and connect with people on the road, other adventurers, or “wandering meteors” like myself.
With and within my chosen families I am truly getting the “re-parenting” that I need, healing the wounds from my own family background or upbringing by being around and integrated in healthier or more accepting families that have in several ways “adopted” me as a friend/auntie/son-daughter.
On the other hand, if I allow myself to relax and be my spontaneous lively self, I am really able to meet and connect with other people on the road or out in nature who, like myself, are seeking adventure — other “wandering meteors”. These encounters bring me just as much joy as my chosen families (albeit of a different type).
However lovely and important these two kinds of relationships are for me, though, I also realize that I’m still missing something.
The relationships with my chosen families are deep and stable; the connections with the other “wandering meteors” are fun and exciting and can also be long-lasting, but often the latter are also, by definition, touch-and-go as I and the other adventurers cross paths for just a few moments, a day, a week, before each of us continuing on our own journey. As much as I enjoy both of theses kinds of relationships and tend to them spontaneously (as well as having the tendency to go on solitary adventures), I am realizing more and more than I would also need — and I actually am starting to miss — some adventure buddies (and possibly also romantic/sexual partners) who could be more constant in my life now.
My chosen families feel like safe and loving havens; the other “wandering meteors” bring extra light and fun and excitement to my life for some brief moments, like a shooting star or a rainbow across the sky. But now I would also like a couple people who’d be willing and excited to share part of my journey, a leg of my trip, with me: some co-captains or mates or other sailors on my ship…
The Little Prince and the Fox 