Letter to Sheila (unsent)

I believe that you are currently caught up in an illusion.  One that feels right, and is easy and satisfying, but which ultimately is not going to be fulfilling.  An illusion eventually runs into reality, and the reality is you have walked away from your responsibilities to your kids, your marriage, and your home.  They need you, and you need them.  We are a family.  In the end your greatest happiness will come from facing your responsibilities and working through them.  Walking away from them is just a short-term high.

 

We both need to make sure we don't burn any bridges with each other, and we need to avoid making rash decisions, especially regarding the house, that we will come to regret when you come out of your dream state.

 

I don't expect you to agree with my assessment, since it contradicts the spell you are under.  I think it is right, though, and I am going to act under this assumption.  For what it is worth, this is the belief most people I talk to hold as well.  We all could be wrong, but I think that unlikely.

 

Take time for yourself.  Enjoy friends, lovers, conversations, experiences.  Indulge in your fantasies, explore your world.  You have worked really hard all these years, and this illusion was probably formed as a reaction to the unhappiness, anger, sadness, aloneness you have felt.  I'm not interested any more than you are in returning to the old patterns of our former marriage.  I envision something much richer, more engaging, more satisfying for all of us.  What that will be we will only know once we re-commit ourselves to the marriage, and the family.  In the meantime, I hope you do not let your fantasies do irreparable damage to the family, and to our marriage.

 

I'm not sending this to you, because I don't think you will believe what I write here, and you will probably react angrily to it, which will not help things.  I'm mostly writing it because it feels real to me, and I am still searching for the truth.