Mithenness
n.
the unsettling awareness that the rest of the world happily carries on in your absence, that although things only ever seem to change when you check back in for an update, they’re unwilling to wait for you, and undergo massive shifts while your back is turned—your mother getting older, your old friends becoming different people, your hometown losing some of the hallmarks that made it feel like home.
Middle English mithen, to be hidden away. Pronounced “mith-uhn-nis.”
