Our universe is where we live. The people we know, the people we love. We add to that universe as we grow and change and age. Sometimes it feels as though it is unmanageable with people we know, and people we want to know and know better. As we age we think it will shrink till there is no one in it but us. The kids leave home, start their own families and we feel left out, since we are no longer the center of the universe, theirs and ours.
What really happens is it just changes. The kids are still there, we are still important to them and they to us. They even add people to our universe: significant others, who become more significant, perhaps become spouses and then children and friends of theirs. We make friends at places other than work, and that changes, too.
Remember, that though we may no longer have a great public universe, we still have one and are important to those in it. .
