If today feels empty, I want to name something important.

Emptiness is not the same as loneliness.

Emptiness often shows up after prolonged emotional labor.

After years of managing everyone else's feelings, after surviving instead of living.

Sometimes emptiness is what happens when your nervous system finally exhales.

So if today feels quiet in a way that's unfamiliar or even unsettling, that doesn't mean something's wrong. It might mean that something has

finally stopped. Welcome to the Divorce Survival Guide podcast, where we have open and

honest conversations about co-parenting, separation, divorce, and the hardest question

of all, should you stay or should you go?

I'm Kate Anthony, your divorce survival guide, and I'm here to help you navigate some of the

roughest waters you've ever swum in and answer some of your toughest questions.

I've been to hell and back. And now it's my

mission in life to help you get to the other side of this process with your sanity and your

heart intact. Hey everyone, welcome back.

And if you are listening to this when it comes out on Christmas Day, Merry Christmas.

If you're watching, you can see that I have my dorky Christmas light necklace on today.

So I'm lighting up for Christmas for today. Anyway, but if you are listening or watching

this on Christmas Day, I want you to know one thing right away, you are exactly where you're

supposed to be. Whether you're surrounded by people or completely alone, whether today feels

tender or heavy or relieving or awkward, peaceful, numb, whatever you're feeling, whether you're

holding joy and grief at the same time or neither. There is no correct way to feel today. And if no one has said

this to you yet, let me say it now. I am really glad that you are here with me. Christmas comes with

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