We use the phrase "meet people where they are" a lot in political organizing.
What it means is, if somebody's not a natural with people, say, you don't send them out knocking on doors or making calls, you have them write postcards.
Retired folks with bad knees can't canvass much, but they love phone banking; they'll happily talk to strangers for hours.
Everyone has something to bring to the table, basically, if you calibrate accordingly, and meet them where they are. I try to keep that in mind in my daily life too.
So I really don't have a good reason why I didn't keep it in mind with you.
I promised you back at the cabin that we would take things slow, and to me, that mostly meant holding back on the physical side, but I realize now that isn't the only thing that needed to be taken slow.
You already had a rich and complex life of your own, with routines and habits and patterns and a million other things.
I never meant for you to reconfigure your life, or to pull you away from your obligations to your kids. I was really just trying to reconfigure mine.
I never wanted to be a burden in any way, and I didn't need to see you every day, or every week, or even every month, that just seemed to be where things headed organically, but they didn't have to.
Maybe I just didn't ask enough questions. Maybe you lack (lacked?) the same self control when it comes to me that I tend to lack when it comes to you.
Maybe I just should have tried harder to meet you where you are.