I'm so glad you broke off the friendship with that awful guy. Is that the one you are referring to?
quote:We don't have a responsibility for another's happiness... But how can I stop the gnawing guilt?
I think because my mother felt left out as a child, she always made me include everyone and/or stay with the person no one else wanted to be with so I struggle with the gnawing guilt too. Not only that, at some level, we are all connected and it KILLS me to turn my back on someone because I know how disconnected I have felt and how painful it is. I don't know what the answer is except that lately I have been doing random acts of kindness. Not necessarily for people who want a relationship with me but, when I can, when I see a need and I have the ability to say a kind word or do a kind deed, I do. Getting heavily involved with someone, however, or taking on the responsibility for their happiness is just too huge a task for me to take on. Little things I can do. I have to take care of myself…no one else will. Learned that one the hard way.
It's like I tell my kids re: the cleaning the house: if only everyone would clean up after themselves, the house would be a lot cleaner.