It is a friend of mine is having a birthday tomorrow someone I have known a long time and I was once very close to. Maybe the closest thing to a mother I have had. Our relationship has been different now since I had to go out on my own and learn to heal myself. I couldn't act like the the person I was before because that person does not exist. I did try for a while because I felt bad that I was losing another person who represented a milestone in my life.
When I entered the program I met a lot of people that were all suffering and going through some of worst times in their lives. We were all babies in the program and children looking for a safe place to land and someone to comfort us instead of us being the comforters.
She did this for us she cooked and made all our favorite foods it seemed for me the way I imagined my own mother would have done if she had lived. She was a mother to us an in turn we were obedient children and did what she told us to do. When she said show up we did. I imagine this is what having a mother would also be like.
I think the way we depended on her made her feel she was needed. In my last relationship I played the same part she did. I took care things and made sure everyone had what they needed and felt safe and secure when I was around. The very thing I was longing for.
I enjoyed this role for a long time but towards the end it felt forced and the people I did for took my presence for granted. No one ask me to do this it was what I needed. I was trying to feel the void that was left in me after my own mother died. I was trying to heal that part of me that didn't feel safe.
I know now that no one can keep you safe even if you have the best mother in the world life isn't safe. Things happen and you have to find a way to dig deep down and trust that you are going to be alright. It is good to have friends that comfort you but in the end no one can fill that void but you.
If we are lucky we grow up and learn that we must save ourselves and find our own inner happiness. This wasn't easy for me because I believed I had something permanently missing from inside of me. Something I would never be able to heal I thought I was damaged goods. This was the lie I told myself and it affected every choice I made. All the time I had the power to heal myself.
I know now this was the path I had to take because I took it. Every choice was right for me and my own growth. I wasn't born lacking in any way and my spirit was trying to find its way back to the freedom I was born with. To live life un-afraid and willing to accept that life changes and people change and we can either adapt or live in constant fear of what is next.
Happy birthday to my friend and thank you for the years you took care of all of us. We are all grown now but we still love and respect you for all that you did for us so many years ago.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
What will they think of me? - The color of life
My sister and two of her kids are coming to visit me next month the first time in 24 years. I have a lot of ideas about the reason why she hasn't visited but they are coming. I decided to redo my upstairs bedrooms with paint and new drapes an over all face lift.
In the old days I would do something like this because I would be worried about what they think. Today I am doing it because it gives me an excuse to stop neglecting the upstairs. After my roomate moved out a few years ago I haven't really done anything to it. It has become a bone yard of spare furniture and lamps.
The room I worked on yesterday was originally painted cake batter yellow with one citrus green wall. Today the room is white with a midnight blue accent wall. It looks amazing but I am completely sore from my marathon painting job and I am not sure I can work on it today. I hope I have enough energy to hang the drapes that will bring the room together.
I had the whole house painted before I moved in. I chose the pallete that I had in my former house since I was too shocked to make any other choices. Most of the walls were the cake batter color with light accent walls. Since then the down stairs has been repainted white with deep accent walls. Ironically the house was white when I bought it but it seemed too stark and un -familiar for me to leave it white. I wanted it to feel like home.
I believe our space directly affect how we feel about our lives especially color. It also affect the commitment we have made to where we are at that moment. If we are planning to stay or if we look like we just moved in or could pack up and leave at any moment. Chaos in the mind is always reflected in our spaces. I am happy to see that I have come along way.
For my particular situation I rejected this house and this new life I was forced into. This was not home and I refused to treated as if it was. My previous home I thought I would be there for life and I was dug in even if I wasn't happy. I look at the color choices I made for some upholstered chairs they were so drab and lifeless. I think "who was that person/"
Over the years as I have gotten better and healed those places inside myself that I thought were permanent my house has begun to change too. Room by room things have gotten lighter I am no longer stuck in the darkness. Even though the midnight blue is dark it is contrasted by the brightest white.
When we are locked in our minds and our troubles we aren't living in the physical world any longer. We are a body walking around doing what we have to do to get by. Life is an interruption to our thinking process and we can only deal with the crisis in our minds. We have to see that the problems can't be solved with more thought. We have let go of the fear our minds have created and be free.
We want to be free to be available for the people that need us now not is some imaginary future when we have all the problems straighten out. We need to be there for ourselves physically and emotionally not just mentally. We need to comfort and take care of the child within that is waiting for us to notice them. It is time to come back to the present.
That was a little heavy in the end there but it reflects what it has taken me a lifetime to learn. Today I can just focus on the fact that the relationship between my sister and I have healed enough that she is coming to visit and I am happy about that. She has found out in the past few months that we are more alike than diffent and life is short and the only time we have is now. I have no expectations.
In the old days I would do something like this because I would be worried about what they think. Today I am doing it because it gives me an excuse to stop neglecting the upstairs. After my roomate moved out a few years ago I haven't really done anything to it. It has become a bone yard of spare furniture and lamps.
The room I worked on yesterday was originally painted cake batter yellow with one citrus green wall. Today the room is white with a midnight blue accent wall. It looks amazing but I am completely sore from my marathon painting job and I am not sure I can work on it today. I hope I have enough energy to hang the drapes that will bring the room together.
I had the whole house painted before I moved in. I chose the pallete that I had in my former house since I was too shocked to make any other choices. Most of the walls were the cake batter color with light accent walls. Since then the down stairs has been repainted white with deep accent walls. Ironically the house was white when I bought it but it seemed too stark and un -familiar for me to leave it white. I wanted it to feel like home.
I believe our space directly affect how we feel about our lives especially color. It also affect the commitment we have made to where we are at that moment. If we are planning to stay or if we look like we just moved in or could pack up and leave at any moment. Chaos in the mind is always reflected in our spaces. I am happy to see that I have come along way.
For my particular situation I rejected this house and this new life I was forced into. This was not home and I refused to treated as if it was. My previous home I thought I would be there for life and I was dug in even if I wasn't happy. I look at the color choices I made for some upholstered chairs they were so drab and lifeless. I think "who was that person/"
Over the years as I have gotten better and healed those places inside myself that I thought were permanent my house has begun to change too. Room by room things have gotten lighter I am no longer stuck in the darkness. Even though the midnight blue is dark it is contrasted by the brightest white.
When we are locked in our minds and our troubles we aren't living in the physical world any longer. We are a body walking around doing what we have to do to get by. Life is an interruption to our thinking process and we can only deal with the crisis in our minds. We have to see that the problems can't be solved with more thought. We have let go of the fear our minds have created and be free.
We want to be free to be available for the people that need us now not is some imaginary future when we have all the problems straighten out. We need to be there for ourselves physically and emotionally not just mentally. We need to comfort and take care of the child within that is waiting for us to notice them. It is time to come back to the present.
That was a little heavy in the end there but it reflects what it has taken me a lifetime to learn. Today I can just focus on the fact that the relationship between my sister and I have healed enough that she is coming to visit and I am happy about that. She has found out in the past few months that we are more alike than diffent and life is short and the only time we have is now. I have no expectations.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
No longer afraid
It has been 10 years since my life was turned upside down and I lost the person I use to be. It is not like life didn't go on and I haven't accomplished a lot of things. Losing the life you thought you were going to have is hard to get over. It took 13 years to create that life and for me to feel like I could actually trust that the relationship would last.
Merging with another person is a gradual at least on an emotional basis years of interaction. I have to admit there was a lot unsaid. When you live with another person for that long time you tend to take for granted that you know what the person is thinking especially when there isn't any visible conflict.
In my case it wasn't from lack of trying and for many years I was mining for feedback. Hoping for one nugget of actual honesty or emotion would show itself. I eventually gave up because this need for truth was interpreted as emotional assaults and I never wanted to be the person that hurt someone like that so I retreated.
I got my emotional eruption when I was told "I don't love you anymore and I am in love with someone else". Ironically almost the same words my husband said to me when he left.
In the past this is where I got stuck thinking I should have been different. If only I had been more something I wouldn't have suffered so much. Someone once told me my picker is broken. I don't really believe that. You pick the person right for you where you are in that moment. Sometimes you grow and change together and sometimes you don't.
February is a month of anniversaries and birthdays linked to people I don't know anymore. My mother also died the day after Valentines. Together these things make me at least think about my life and my choices. I don't really feel any deep regrets and I probably wouldn't change much about my life experience.
The above statement isn't true. I would change a lot about the past but mostly about myself. The person I am today would not accept the lack emotional intimacy that my younger self accepted. I gave willing until there was nothing left hoping for just a little emotional consideration. I was loved and treated well but never let in and therefore I felt alone. They were both shut down and so was I to a point this was why we were a good match at the time.
I heard yesterday from a speaker. Those who are spiritual seekers get left because we are always trying to be better and we are never enough for ourselves and this is reflected back to us as never being enough for someone else.
I know that sound harsh but there is truth in that statement. I have spent 10 years getting to know and love the person that I am today. Forgiving myself for being human and for once in my life not sweeping the trauma I was feeling under the carpet. I looked at all that I was and saw how I had done best and what has happen to me is just life.
Today I maybe alone but I feel whole and happy. The love I have for myself isn't dependant on whether other people love me. I don't intend to be alone forever and I now feel strong enough to just live and be happy without judging myself and my progress. I have gathered the best parts of myself and I am making plans. I am no longer afraid to be who I am.
Merging with another person is a gradual at least on an emotional basis years of interaction. I have to admit there was a lot unsaid. When you live with another person for that long time you tend to take for granted that you know what the person is thinking especially when there isn't any visible conflict.
In my case it wasn't from lack of trying and for many years I was mining for feedback. Hoping for one nugget of actual honesty or emotion would show itself. I eventually gave up because this need for truth was interpreted as emotional assaults and I never wanted to be the person that hurt someone like that so I retreated.
I got my emotional eruption when I was told "I don't love you anymore and I am in love with someone else". Ironically almost the same words my husband said to me when he left.
In the past this is where I got stuck thinking I should have been different. If only I had been more something I wouldn't have suffered so much. Someone once told me my picker is broken. I don't really believe that. You pick the person right for you where you are in that moment. Sometimes you grow and change together and sometimes you don't.
February is a month of anniversaries and birthdays linked to people I don't know anymore. My mother also died the day after Valentines. Together these things make me at least think about my life and my choices. I don't really feel any deep regrets and I probably wouldn't change much about my life experience.
The above statement isn't true. I would change a lot about the past but mostly about myself. The person I am today would not accept the lack emotional intimacy that my younger self accepted. I gave willing until there was nothing left hoping for just a little emotional consideration. I was loved and treated well but never let in and therefore I felt alone. They were both shut down and so was I to a point this was why we were a good match at the time.
I heard yesterday from a speaker. Those who are spiritual seekers get left because we are always trying to be better and we are never enough for ourselves and this is reflected back to us as never being enough for someone else.
I know that sound harsh but there is truth in that statement. I have spent 10 years getting to know and love the person that I am today. Forgiving myself for being human and for once in my life not sweeping the trauma I was feeling under the carpet. I looked at all that I was and saw how I had done best and what has happen to me is just life.
Today I maybe alone but I feel whole and happy. The love I have for myself isn't dependant on whether other people love me. I don't intend to be alone forever and I now feel strong enough to just live and be happy without judging myself and my progress. I have gathered the best parts of myself and I am making plans. I am no longer afraid to be who I am.
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