I miss being emotionally expected, not only appreciated

Dear Delyara, Appreciation is lovely. It is not the same thing. People can appreciate you for years and still not build you into the center of their emotional life. They can think highly of you, thank you, admire you, rely on you, praise your strength, and still not be the place where your lower, softer, more ordinary self is expected and welcomed without fuss. That’s what I miss. To be expected emotionally is to have a place in someone’s reflexes. In their first reach. Their first thought. Their instinct for where warmth goes when something matters. Appreciation has touched me. Expectation would have held me.