Balancing

I've been a little lost in translation because I've been trying to figure out what makes me feel like this...

The boy has joined a group that is, for lack of a better (or more current) word, a community organizing group.  He loves it.  He does, he does, he tells me at length every night about the group's plans and decisions, and he tells me about meeting all these new people who really seem to get him.

This, I think, is wonderful.  Too much time spent with ourselves is a bit soul-destroying.  I'm so happy, and dare I say, proud of him, for making this choice and being so happy.

The downside for me is that when he tells me his stories, it reminds me of times in my life when I had that sort of support.  I got my M.Ed. in counseling and in order to do that, I had to take a class in group therapy.  Until then, I had been been completely adverse to group therapy.  How could I trust a circle of strangers when I still make my friends jump through hoops before I could trust them?  But this class, and this mini-group therapy really helped.  I trusted that group.  It also reminds me of being the president of an animal rights group in law school, and how those meetings really inspired me.

I want the boy to do his damnded best in these groups.  And I think I need more interactions.