Since having depression a lot in my early twenties, I discovered that living my life in accordance with the seasons has helped to keep my mental health in check since. I no longer dread the cold winter but see it as a time to hibernate and retreat a little.
I know that there is no ideal time to separate, but I had planned to separate from my husband in the summer after 2 years of getting my ducks in a row. But when it came around, life felt too busy: the children had their birthdays, there was a summer holiday, late nights, early mornings and I just couldn't muster the strength to initiate the separation. He knows I want to separate but is content living as housemates. I am not.
Our youngest child has just started school and is having wobbles about it each morning so now doesn't feel like the right time either and then I thought, maybe after half term, but then it's going to be a very miserable winter tor them with little to distract them with (other than Christmas I guess).
Next year our eldest child begins high school which makes it feel even more like the wrong time to be uprooting our family unit.
People may think I'm overthinking all of this but I would like to initiate my separation in line with what would work better for our family in relation to the seasons and our lives in general. I realise now that summer was never going to happen. I always have far too much going on.