Hi Brummie
lots of things here I would agree with. Having given up our way of life in our early 20's to become dubs, we now find ourselves 20 years later in that same situation again.
The friends we thought we had are are gone. The ones we were persuaded to drop so as to be good dubs have moved on and we have nothing in common. Yes it is hard to trust people again. We are very wary of getting involved in anything that might need commitment and/or lots of time, because we have already had too much time taken away. Fortunately our children who were brought up in the org are getting over it and building their lives on their terms, and we dont have any other relatives in.
But we will survive. I left a way of life behind once and I can do it again. The first time I thought I had jhvh's help in doing it and that is why I suceeded, but now I know I did it all on my own. The help was in my mind and they havent taken that from me.
We have been out for about 2 years having faded for about 3. We have moved on. We dont care about meeting any dubs now, even though I used to try and avoid them to start with as I could cope with all the explanations.
You do move on although it can take time.
We even had xmas decks in the front garden this year, and we are still not DA or DF.
An elders wife called when we had my sons birthday cards and a banner up and didnt make any comment!!
It does take time to loose the guilty feeling about xmas, birthdays, not going to the memorial etc but that sppeds up once you have proven to yuorself that the 'troof' is a LIE.
Anglise