Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Growing up again


During the last year many expressed sympathy along with “I can’t imagine what you’re going through.”

Hmmm, how to describe the experience without being committed.  I suspect my paid friends will have a field day with this blog.

It’s like two parallel people exist.  An adult you, the face you present to the public, and a private you, the face you keep hidden, the part of you starting over, a newborn you.

The adult you, that public face, makes it through the early days in a fog, doing things more from memory than meaning or thinking.

The newborn you behaves very much like an infant.  You eat and sleep, sleep, and sleep and are finicky.  You cry a lot. You even get your nights and days mixed up.

Eventually though, time passes and you open your eyes and start observing the world around you, the lights, the sounds, the faces.  It all seems new and unfamiliar.

You discover you still have hands and feet.  Perhaps that startles you.

You start to crawl, to explore again.  You start to stand, holding on desperately to everything within your reach, trying not to fall.  You look around but don’t move, too unsteady, still unsure of yourself in this new world.

You stand up; you fall down.  You move forward with uncertain, wobbly steps.  Eventually you run. 

And then you progress to the terrible twos, the equivalent of finding your mad.  You cry no! You throw a temper tantrum, and this child side of you finds it quite tempting to throw one’s self on the floor and wail.

Eventually you get through the threes, the fours, the fives and back to kindergarten, where you perhaps find new friends.

Eventually this child you converges back with the adult you that has been there all along, albeit in a fog.  Slowly, eventually, the fog lifts.

And if you’re lucky, you blend that adult you with childlike wonder and see your new world as an adult but with a newly remembered sense of curiosity.





Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Friday, May 25, 2012

The scab


I have a scab
Upon my heart
Healing, but not healed.

Most days
I leave it alone
Healing progresses.

Some days
I pick at it
And make it weep.

Other days
I rip it open
And feel the pain.





Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Avoiding me


It's interesting to me that I feel compelled to write “I’m sorry” to you as a reader. 

I’m sorry I’m not further along on my journey / path.
I’m sorry I keep going backwards.
I’m sorry I keep bumping into unexpected emotional triggers that I have to process.
I’m sorry I’m not able to write joyful stuff yet.

I suspect that if you and I knew each other in person, this might be the point in time where I would be annoying you as a friend.   

Where my still processing stuff might start feeling old to you.

Where thoughts of “get over it” or “how many times do I have to hear about <<insert whatever story / memory I’m fixated on at the moment>>” or “why can’t you do <<insert whatever activity>> without tearing up / crying” might start popping into your head.  

Perhaps “enough already” is the prevailing thought and you might start to avoid me as it takes too much of your emotional energy to deal with me.

If it helps you any, I’m having the same thoughts about me too. 

I’m annoying myself.  Some days it takes me too much emotional energy to deal with me.  

I just haven’t quite figured out to how to avoid me.





Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The labyrinth


I walked the path of a labyrinth tonight.

By definition a labyrinth is “a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one’s way; a maze” or so says the dictionary on my Mac.

Yep, that would be my grieving process.  Definitely complicated, and certainly difficult to find my way.

Sometimes it’s forward, sometimes turning, sometimes doubling back, no clear path, no sense of direction, and no way of telling how far along the path I am at any point in time. 

Disorienting.

The controlling, analytical side of me wants a clear line, a finish line if you will, so I know how long I have to hold it in and when I can sigh “it’s over”.

But I’m learning, perhaps the hard way, that grieving is more like walking the labyrinth. 

It is twisting and turning, it’s putting one foot in front of the other, making it to the center and then working your way back out.

The only difference I see between walking the labyrinth and my grieving is that when you exit the labyrinth, you are in the same physical location as you started, but in grieving, you exit an emotionally changed person with nothing ever the same as it was.






Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

The habit of you


I wonder when the habit of you….. that instinctive turning to you to bandaid my heart… fades away?














Copyright 2012.   All rights reserved.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Moments in time


Pictures
Memories
Moments in time

Expressions
Faces
Captured in time

Thoughts
Love
Preserved in time

Pictures and portraits of loved ones are priceless.












Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

On the outside


I look around
It seems to me
Everyone’s a couple
Smiling, holding hands

I stand alone
It tugs my heart
I’m happy for them
I’m sad for me

They’re not wrong
No apology needed
It’s just the way
It is for me

I’m standing on the outside
With my memories
Watching you make yours
And I smile with you.







Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved

Friday, May 11, 2012

You saved me - the dialogue



I hope you know
You saved me.

My life was twisting
Turning not headed
In a good direction
Choices poorly made

Until I met you
And you saved me

You steadied me
You gave me direction
You supported me
You set me free

You saved me
You save me still


I came home from church one night and wrote this verse.

I was originally thinking of my Bill when I wrote the words.

When I read it a second time, I thought of my minister, as he saved me too.

Then, after reading it a third time, I thought of all the people in this past year who each in their own way saved me too.

And then, after reading it a fourth time, I realize it applies to Christ as well.

So, I wonder if we realize that each and every day, we each stand in for Christ in each other’s lives?



Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Monday, May 7, 2012

In the air


I’m at the airport
Waiting to soar

The sky is clear
The engines roar
I’m above the clouds

I wonder if
You’re near?

I send you love
I feel your peace
My heart just smiles

I picture you waving
As I fly by.







Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

I wonder when


The sun is sleeping
I am not

I wonder when
I can

The world is laughing
I am not

I wonder when
I can

The sky is weeping
I am too

I wonder when
I stop






Copyright 2012.  All rights reserved.