Velvet Validity

It felt like his innocence was gone. I saw that in him in glimpses before of his cruel apathy, but this time was different. And not just an age thing either, it was a sexual thing… I think any time you go back to someone you had before, it’s never the same. And it’s certainly never exactly the way you have formed the memories in your mind over the absent time. For me, it’s always a bit of a disappointment; it’s somehow just less than it was before…or maybe than it had been in your rose colored hindsight.

And yet, not exactly; not with him. No, my every moment with him, comical, serious, sexual, friendly is all blanketed with the velvet validity of everything I remember. All my time with him is though. He is my exception. My exception to every rule. I said to him, “I do want to be friends…and I get sad when I think we can’t be. I mean, I love you…I love you either way, you know?” He responded, “I know you do.” Yes, he does know.

I’m playing Rose Colored Glasses – the song that in my mind always defined my dad’s unconditional and enduring love for my mother. How strange that even as a child with no comprehension of my parents’ marriage or romantic love at all really, I always felt that song was my daddy’s song for my mother. Maybe it’s the conversation we had one day while riding in his red Bonneville with the pin striped velour seats I thought were so soft and pretty. I was maybe 10 or 11 and this song came on the radio and he turned it up and said in his deep joyously loud voice, “Oh baby, your daddy sure burned this one up!” I didn’t know what that meant, so I asked him what he meant by that and he laughed and said, “I used to play that one on the jukebox over and over and over again until people would tell me to knock it off!” Wise beyond my years even then about lost or unrequited love, Daddy didn’t even have to actually say the words, I knew he meant this happened during the worst of his heartbreak era after my mother left him.

I am undoubtedly my father’s daughter. My mother never suffered from silly nostalgic memories or wasted time wallowing in a broken heart from lost love. My sister surely doesn’t suffer that affliction either. Neither of them would ever be such ridiculously silly romantics. Just me. Just me…and my daddy. So maybe it’s my family legacy that I uphold with this unconditional and enduring love I have for D? Maybe this kind of everlasting depth of devotion just runs in my veins?

Perhaps the only love that could have forever kept me from accepting my love for D again is my daughter’s… Her beautiful heart was the only thing which gave me the strength to at least minimize the depth of emotion I have for this man and place it on that tiny back burner. …And as life’s cruel steel-fisted irony would have it, I now no longer have hers.

For the love of Pete, will my life ever cease to fully represent the sappiest of country songs? Having been born into a situation of unrequited maternal love, chronic loss, regular betrayal, a thick aura of unrequited love surrounds me as I live my silly old Lifetime Movie life. And I don’t fool myself anymore into believing my happy ending might come. I think this is just what my life was meant to be for some reason: a cautionary tale about love and loss – the kind where you cry at the end because your heart aches, not tears of joy that it all turned around and the heroine overcame at the end. Hell, maybe I’m not even the heroine? Maybe I’m just the sideline story going on in the background, as the good guy gets the girl and rides into the sunset hand in hand with the love of his life? Maybe my daddy was the star of the show and it ended bittersweet…or maybe it’s one of my daughters’ show? And the happy ending will come for her life?

Oh well, I just love him. And just as I feel some sense of resentment at that blasted stubborn truth I can’t seem to change no matter what I do(ugh!), I hear another song which perfectly identifies my daddy as well, Here For a Good Time.
Daddy enjoyed life to its fullest all the way to his very last second. He may have felt the acute sting of lost love just like I do, but he never let it stop him from laughing, loving, and living to the fullest for very long. He had hiccups from it and he kept right on going. Unlike him, I have full-on break downs.

So, in his honor, I’m not going to beat myself up today for loving this man the way I do. I’m just not. It isn’t going to change anything, so I may as well just embrace it. After all, the unconditional love of my daddy is gone now and my daughters don’t care either way anymore. And even brief moments with D give me the bittersweet glimpses of joy my daddy miraculously maintained with his rose-colored love for my mother till the very end of his life. Bittersweet was good enough for my daddy till his dying day, so it’s surely good enough for me to appreciate and not resent or fight.

After all, it really just is exactly what it is.

With or Without…Him

Will I ever stop loving him? I truly think not…

Things are better, but only as friends… a friendship which is slowwwwwlllyyyy developing and gaining trust (I think!?). I’m okay, no actually, I’m grateful for the friendship we are creating. I would rather have him as a dear friend than not have him in my life at all.

Just when I really believe my feelings for him have finally transformed into a more brotherly-like love, I will look at him and…

I just stopped over to his house to get a donation for a cause I’m collecting for. Coincidentally, as I’m driving over there, the song he once told me in the smack dab middle of our personal not-together-but-not-separate hell starts playing. Even as I pull in his drive, the song (With or Without You) is still playing. I can’t help but play the moment when he asked me to be sure they played that at his funeral through my mind. A thought I’ve not allowed myself to re-live in quite a few years. But I do now. It’s safer now, right? We are truly just friends. Pulling in his drive, I hesitate to turn the car and song (and sweet memory) off, but I gotta grab the donation and get somewhere else.

He’s just fresh from the gym, wearing sweats and kinda sweaty… I actually think my feelings have changed. No, I mean I really believe that.

Then he holds me for a moment and after all this time of craziness and whatnot, I feel for the first time in years, more than a mere friendly hug. His arms wrap around me just a bit softer and more tender than they did for our last few hugs. They hold onto me just a tad tighter and longer. At first, I don’t want to let go. I want to cling to him for life the minute I feel that something more from him. I do hold on, not for dear life, but like him, just a smidgeon more from my soul and not just from my trained-to-love-him-as-a-friend mind (that protection mode I’ve developed after all this time).

And I think to myself, am I imagining this? Is my eight year long fantasy running away with my rational side? I hold on for a minute right back, then gently push away from him and tell myself, Yes, you’re only imagining that something extra. Okay yeah, the hug is slightly different than he’s been hugging you for the past few years, but it does not, and I mean does NOT mean anything.

Snapped back to the reality, we continue a friendly chat for a few minutes. As I prepare to leave (no matter what type of visit/relationship/hug/whatever, I always, always hate leaving his house!), he grabs his donation to carry to my car for me. I walk next to him to grab my handbag sitting on the table. I’m not sad we are just friends. I don’t look at the picture on his refrigerator with the girl he’s dating now and feel any jealousy or even any hurt or twinge of “what if” like I once would have felt like a nail piercing my heart. No, I don’t feel that anymore. So yes, my love for him now must truly be friendly only; love coming from that pure place in my heart which loves forever when it truly loves at all. So, as I’m standing rather close to him grabbing my bag and he’s got his donation bag, I’m preparing to leave. We are laughing about something trivial and suddenly he sets the donation bag back down…(what? what is he doing? No donation after all?).. Yeah, he sets it back down….to hug me again!

This is an even longer hug than the first one…and just as tender..but maybe I sense something almost sensual in this one as he holds me close and brushes the small section of exposed skin on my upper back. Is it? No! I only love him as a friend… yet my heart soars, pitter-patters, skips, and plays hopscotch like a little girl. And this time I struggle with correcting my feelings and I rest my head in the nook of his neck and shoulder where it has always fit just right and I want to let go and melt into him like I have a million times before.

Oh, will I ever, EVER stop loving him?

Elephant in my living room!

I can’t talk to M about much of anything anymore and it scares me.  We are moving so soon and so much rides on him for that…. 

I keep trying in a delicate, but honest, way to point out my concerns, but just like 13 years ago, everything is an “attack”.  Every word of concern gets met with, “I AM NOT A BAD PERSON!!  I AM NOT A BAD PERSON!!  I AM NOT A BAD PERSON” screamed repeatedly over my trying-to-stay calm voice and words, until I have no choice but to hang up the phone.  Obviously, this doesn’t result in anything productive and does the very opposite of reassuring my fears. 

This experience throws me clear into full force PTSD as I’m hurled instantly to 13 years ago…trapped, scared, nervous, with a 3 month old child to care for.  My knees shake, my head spins and the frustration at not being heard, not being counted, not being considered, not being able to even TALK is overwhelming and terrifying to my core.  What am I doing?

Mark, he who I’ve watched struggle and kick for years, fighting his way past and beyond all that once haunted and controlled him, is yet again unreachable, irreproachable, impossible to reason with. And I am left feeling two options:  return to that horribly handicapping environment which threatened my sanity or continue raising my children far away from their loving father.  

Even the choices alone don’t feel like choices.  They feel like steel walls closing in on me fast, boxing me in tight, with the “rules” written in graffiti all over them in bold black paint.  Rules from my childhood; rules from my relationship with Mark 13 years ago. 

The rules:

1.  No matter what M does or says, it’s always absolutely fine.
2. No one is to question, doubt, or worry about M’s behaviors or choices.  They are all as close to perfect as could possibly be.
3. No one is to point out (kindly or otherwise) any fears or, God forbid, discrepancies in Mark’s choices.
4. If you see an elephant in the living room, no one is to speak of it, question its presence, or for God’s sake call it an elephant.  Nothing is what it appears and only M knows what it really is, so he cannot be questioned or expected to communicate with the rest of us. 
5. It’s M’s world…only his reality counts…the rest of us are just graced with the opportunity to live in it…so SHUT UP.
6. If you speak or imply any of the above, it is a direct “attack on M” and he will kick and scream accordingly, deftly playing the offense is the best defense game to the point that you’re wasting every word you can actually get into the conversation, trying (in utter futility) to insist that you’ve not attacked or insulted M.
7. Every word you say that is not an ass-kissing “M, you’re the GREATEST!”  is, in fact, going to be considered an attack.
8. Your actual words will not ever matter.  They are ALL an attack on Mark, unless they are a direct and undisguised compliment of his person and character.
9. M will hear what M hears and it’s not up for discussion…  What M hears IS what you said, no matter how far off it may seem (to you) from what you’ve actually said.
10. Questions, doubts, fears (authentic or otherwise) will NOT be tolerated or spoken of EVER.
11. Unless you are complimenting M on how wonderful he is, you must SHUT UP AT ALL TIMES.

I am afraid.  I am rendered paralyzed to act and terrified to speak of my concerns…while the walls close in tighter on me.

“…Ladybugs Katherine! Lots and lots of ladybugs!”

Lazing in the glorious sun in my back yard yesterday, chatting with girls and Mark about the big upcoming move, feeling mostly excited and thankfully, only mildly overwhelmed at the moment thinking of all that has to be done…all that’s to be left behind, and what’s to come…  Sweet ladybug lands on my thigh, just hanging out for a moment.  I try to recall what this means.  I have a vague recollection of some movie or some symbolic meaning of this ladybug in this moment.

 “Ladybug: Perhaps best known as an emblem of luck, the Ladybug is a love symbol too. Asian traditions hold to the belief that if caught and then released, the Ladybug will faithfully fly to your true love and whisper your name in his/her ear. Upon hearing the Ladybug’s message your true love will hurry his/her way to your side. Ancient farmers of the land have considered the Ladybug a good omen as she controls aphid populations. The number of spots on a Ladybug’s back is said to indicate the number of months to pass before the wish for love comes true.”

My ladybug flew off and then returned briefly to the same spot on my thigh.  She only hung out with me for a moment…long enough for me to curiously wonder.  Later I found the above explanation when I Googled animal symbolism.

Strange feelings stirred this weekend with Mark’s visit.  He shared some upsetting news with me and it turned my world around.  It was as if some ancient forgotten feelings were gently brushed. There seems to be a woman he has casually dated, who is claiming she is pregnant with his child.  Oh geesh…hello and welcome to the Jerry Springer Show!  What the heck is this?! I remained fairly calm at first but the feelings slowly snuck up on me as I pondered and tears threatened to spill.  I was hurt. 

Only last Christmas I asked him if we could have another baby.  He was adamantly and decidedly against this. Mostly I was teasing him, but I was really hoping at the same time.  A part of me longs to know what a planned pregnancy feels like before I hang up my reproductive abilities forever.  I love our children and wouldn’t think to change a thing regarding them, but I have the saddest sense of never knowing the excitement that comes with learning I am pregnant, in spite of the fact that I have two fabulous children.  I only know the, “Oh my GOD! I’m pregnant..what the heck should/am I going to do?”  I don’t know the, “Yay…LOOK we’re having a baby!” feeling.  At one point, I was absolutely certain I would have this with Dave, but that’s not going to ever be and I resigned myself to the mercy of my children’s father hopefully granting me the third and first expectedly planned child.  Again, not to be…

And now this…a “stranger” having a child with MY children’s father?  A half-brother or sister right in the delicate era when I’m desperately trying to explain intelligent life-choices to my teen/pre-teen girls?  Immediately following my pleadings for a planned child? It’s upsetting to me in a very selfish way and in a not-so-selfish way in regards to my daughters and the family we have created in spite of the divorce.  Mark confessed strong hunches and disbelief that this really is his child.  I admit I share these hunches, but I can’t tell if this is wishful, desperate hope or actual intuition.  Really feels like intuition, as the circumstances surrounding this pregnancy as relayed by Mark, are clouded in a dark suspicion.  Apparently he had “the” conversation with this woman and even prior to their intimate relations which resolutely explained his unwillingness and total lack of desire for any more children.  I certainly am no hypocrite and fully understand taking chances and what happens sometimes, as I have one unplanned child with this man and another one who borders between the planned and unplanned – but purposely and knowingly (on both our parts) taking a BIG chance area.  However, something just feels different with this.  Mark and I never had this conversation he had with this woman, until last Christmas…years after our two children’s births.  And keeping these children was never a thought to Mark.  He would discuss no other options with either actually.

I did finally find my voice to say softly, “Dammit, I wanted us to have one more and I even begged you last Christmas!” I was a little comforted when he replied, “I know and it would be totally different if this was you.”

Something passionate and historically forgotten (but not lost?) for this man, this unbelievably fantastic father of my children, awoke with those words. Momentarily I forgot my sadness and the- what-will-this-do-to-our-children fears and it dawned on me that there IS one person on this planet with whom it is different for me in a good way.  A place on this earth where I have carte blanche and the huge margin of error I’ve never known and always hoped to have somewhere in my lifetime…or recognized might be the more appropriate word?  Hindsight tells me I always had it here, but never fully realized or comprehended. And as hurt and afraid and sad as I felt, it was temporarily overcome by love for this beautiful man, who after everything, does love me and does put me in a position of greater respect.  This man who, other than our two terrific children, has more reason than anyone to NOT put me in this position.  The same man who knows of so many of my faults, mistakes and truly ugly characteristics…still chooses to give ME this place, this status, this beautiful acceptance and WIDE berth of error. 

I flash back to the deciding moments I’ve had with Mark.  The tearfully spoken “Ummmm…guess what?” moments in which this man responded with every support and every ounce of respect any one could offer a woman in such frightening times.  He never once veered in his choices to want and to love our children, unexpected, unplanned, whatever….  Never once.  I did.  I was confused and scared and undecided..reflecting on ALL our options.  While he, he was stout and strong and beautifully decided.  And my selfish, spoiled self rears its ugly head now to scream at this other woman, “Na na na na boo boo…I’M the mamma dammit…I’m the wanted Mamma.  He was never willing to discuss adoption or abortion with me!”  It never even occurred to me that Mark had any other responses to, Guess what?  I’m pregnant than full and total support and strength.  Seems he does.  Although in my defense, I was not a grown woman with a professional career who engaged in the I DO NOT want any children discussion with him just prior to our pregnancies.  Seems as though our accidents were more in the area of mutual accidents and never came across as even possibly planned or pre-meditated, as this situation screams.

I have not always acted honorably in our various life challenges as people or as parents with Mark.  In fact, there are many occasions when I have acted horribly and been just mean and hateful.  I can blame some of these on circumstances, innocence, and youthful self-righteousness and I have had cause to regret them anyway, but they will now always be sources of shame for me after this one little sentence he spoke like a gift from God.  Have I really given Dave K.  every chance, every forgiveness, every excuse for a million horrible and hateful beyond explanation behaviors and actions against me while being selfish and stingy with these in regards to my children’s father, who has repeatedly and thoroughly proven himself as far more deserving of forgiveness and acceptance than this, or any, other man?  Am I this blind?

I was.  I must have been.  Was the intoxicating joy and perfection I felt with Dave and never once prior so much that it knocked me senseless and blind to see the beauty of Mark’s love and respect for me?  I’ve always been admitting and openly praising of Mark as a man who worked hard to change his early shortcomings and surprisingly became the greatest father I could have ever hoped for my children.  I have almost always been open to seeing this and believing in it from the actions-speak-louder-than-words faith, but I just never really “got it” fully.  Am I part of the reason he succeeded so well in this?

I never would have guessed or presumed this.  EVER!   And it smacked me so beautifully and lovingly that I was taken aback with a brand new love and gratitude for Mark, the most beautiful father, ex, and friend any woman could dream of.  I fell just a little bit back in love with him this weekend. Whoa…life sure is surprising in its sudden and totally unexpected twists and turns!  I can’t even imagine what this will or will not bring… or what it even means…

Such insignificance… (a post from the past)

Interesting weekend…two dates(!!), both of which were lovely and enjoyable.  I should feel fortunate and lucky, special and even “wanted”…

I don’t.  I feel more empty, disinterested, and insignificant than prior.  I’m not sure why, but it’s a yukky place to be in my head when I really feel I should logically feel the very opposite.  Sometimes, I look around and I see the significance of every human being and it’s beautiful.  I see that the random person driving in the car in front of me matters very much to someone, somewhere in this world..most likely several people even.  I often think of this when I’m wondering why there are so many “mean people” in the world and I see that in spite of a person’s capacity for being an ugly human being, perhaps even cruel in many ways, that these people deeply matter to someone still.  Someone loves them, in spite of this seeming character flaw or “unlovable” trait.  Someone in their world either sees beyond such things or chooses to love them perhaps because of it…?  I really don’t know which and can guess it’s a combination of both in various circumstances regarding various people…

So,  after an event this weekend which left me feeling empty of this and wondering what’s missing in me that I lack this acceptance and/or forgiveness…had a brief pity party…and then decided that this was ridiculous and thought of the people who love me…  my children, although I’m far from a perfect or ideal mother.  My father, although I’m certainly chock full of flaws and challenges as a daughter.  And a few dear friends who have seen me at my best and my worst, and still choose to value and love me.

That’s a great deal of love in my life that I’m blessed with that is there in spite of MY imperfections and unlovable traits.  Why does that just not feel like enough sometimes?  Why do I want more?  Even when i realize and believe the very definition of misery and unhappiness is longing for what one doesn’t have…  and also believe that we do, in fact, give energy and credence to these negative thoughts and feelings merely by allowing them, much less seeming to accept them into our hearts as “truths”, perpetuating the very things that are making us miserable and focusing on the lack, thus creating more space to lack what is wanted or desired.  If love begets love; misery begets misery; wants begets more want; lonely creates more loneliness…then why would I allow myself these ridiculous notions, particularly when I can logically see that I have so much love and acceptance in my world already..how dare I feel empty or want more or different kinds of love?

Right now, I just do and I don’t like it.  I don’t like this about myself.  Just because I might not have everything I want, just exactly the way I want it..how could I be so selfish and stubborn as to allow the incredible gifts I do have to feel inadequate?

I look honestly at myself and the past few years and wonder as to the lesson in the misery and hardships I’ve allowed into my life and actually “pursued” to some degree.  Not wanting to think I’ve been through this (or put myself through such things!!) and not come away a better person, I try to see the valuable  lessons and the (hopefully) remarkable change for the positive these events have created in my character or life as a whole…  I cannot see them.  I see lessons in loving others unconditionally which have merely brought me to lowering my standards for myself and accepting treatment that is totally unacceptable and has only helped to perpetuate such cruel treatment of my heart and de-valuing of my freely given love and acceptance.  I don’t think anyone is thinking or saying of me, “She is a beautiful person.  She has loved me in spite of myself and at my most unlovable or lowest character acts”.

dreams or premonitions?

After being away from my blog for some time, today I read back a little and saw my post where I dreamt about what’s currently happening with Dave.    I had visions and things, but rather told myself they were natural because it would be my fears coming true….yet, now in hindsight, I think, “Wow…I really did see it coming before I knew!!” 

So, that makes the last dream I had even more unsettling and of course I wonder, just fears or premonition?  I was with him in the dream, of course – as always (arghhh!), but something wasn’t right.  It was a sexual dream, which I (sadly) rarely have (~:P~), so it definitely made a lasting impression.  I could not blog immediately, so many of the little details have escaped my memory, but I do know that I was with him and I actually think I was upset because he was cheating on the new one with me!  Which is not at all like him and I can’t imagine would really happen, but is it me hoping (gosh, I hope not!!) or wishing for that?  Is it me refusing to accept that any female could be as important to him as I once was and so I dream about the most intimate betrayal I know he’d never do to the woman he truly loved? 

What made the dream very sad though was that in the dream, although we were being physically intimate, I sensed that he was not interested in me like that or any other way.  I was very sad, as this is still the one thng I’ve not yet ever experienced with him, but he has never been involved with another woman in any serious, committed  capacity since we (technically) split almost four years ago.  It felt wonderful to be with him in the dream, but I was sad, sad, SAD….

There were so many tiny nuances/messages within the dream and I so wish I could remember those better, so I might better decipher the message or warning it may have been trying to send me.  It was a rather emotionally complicated dream, that much I remember.  And I tell myself I only had the dream because I miss him damnit and I put him there subconsciously for no other reason than I miss him so very much.  I actually said that out loud twice today, “I miss you”.  So, that’s probably the only reason for the dream. 

I don’t want to be the kind of person who would accept or allow infidelity, even if it is with the man who feels like he will always and has always belonged with me.  He is not with me and I don’t want to wish that kind of pain on any other person. 

Yet, good Lord in heaven, I miss him…even if I can’t admit that to anyone but myself and my blog….I do miss him and nothing about being apart from him today feels one iota more right than being apart from him the day we split did…  It feels as if fate has been negatively altered and like nothing will ever fall in its proper place again.  Now it’s chaotic “order” because the ground level is messed up..nothing is as it was intended…

I’m trying to tell myself that regardless of it feeling that way, really, everything is probably as it’s intended, because this is what it is, but nothing in my soul or spirit can accept that, even now, after everything…

I’m grateful I got to spend some time with him in my dream, even if it wasn’t as I would want it to be….but I still very much wish he would leave my mind and spirit forever and stop haunting me like he does…like he always has from the moment we met.  Or I wish he would just come back to us.  We all miss him so terribly…and love and value him so very much….

Discombobulated

Out of sorts of course because I went there yesterday morning.  Had a safety plan in place, but of course that didn’t work.  And wondering why I go anywhere of my own volition where I feel the need to have a “safety plan”.  My masochistic side must run deep and rampant after everything.

Nope. Didn’t work. Of course it didn’t!  Who do I think I’m foolin’,  kiddin’, and messin’ with here?  As though any feeble attempt at controlling the situation in any way would be successful…  I am the definition of insanity at work every day and attempting to function.  My tiny, respectful demand was ignored…and I allowed that because I don’t have enough backbone anymore to even look out for my own self interest in even tiny, feeble, pathetic ways…

Yukkk…  I am discombobulated and disgusted.

Actually flirted (!!) with someone Thursday night and the immediate response is to run to him first ting Friday morning, as though I’ve got something to make up for.  It’s a weird game I’m playing with pretty much myself and it makes no sense!

Hex 2: “Receptivity to Love”

Question to I Ching:

What do I need to do regarding my situation with DK?

Answer:

Hexagram 2:” Receptivity to Love:

Your love life is on fertile ground right now. This hexagram denotes “devotion,” “readiness,” and the creative spirit of the Earth. A powerful relationship has begun or is soon to manifest. This hexagram reminds one to be open to the idea of love, as love can come from where you least expect it.  Give and you will receive. Offer a kind word to someone, a hug, a greeting or an offer of assistance. See love for what it is: A conscious act of devotion and a willingness to stand by a special person.  Creativity and the act of creation are referenced here, and creative energies will play an extremely significant role.”

 Thinking if I stay any more “receptive” to him, I’ll begin to take on the characteristics of his garbage “receptacle”!!  Or maybe it’s too late….and I already bear those characteristics…  I already define giving till it hurts and have no further interest in the martyrdom lifestyle that brings me.  Nor does there seem to be a whole lot of Return on Investment.  And martyrs are rarely respected until they actually die for their cause to humanity.  My cause to humanity in this is to cease getting on humanity’s nerves from being a whiney cry baby:-D

Listen to me as though I get nothing in return!  I get everything in huge amounts spread out among tiny small moments!

Facing repercussions today.  Little nervous, but way-laying that by reflecting on how I ever got to this place at all and the madness that holds me here!  Things will be fine.  I know it.  It’s all going according to some greater plan, I’m sure:)

Letter to God

I broke the rules.  I did.  I can’t blame him this time.  I’m guilty.  I broke the rules I laid in place.

My friend died and I wonder why no matter what happens:  death, illness,  nightmare, anything that shakes me up at all…..I can’t rest easy until I’ve been with him.  I get consumed with thoughts of how short life is and what really matters at the end of it all….and it becomes an uncontrollable need to just have him close to me, as though the only thing in the world that can provide any comfort that there really is meaning or sense to it all is time with him.  I would like to rid myself of this.  He is the enigma and the solution to my confusion.  Does that sense of comfort he brings come from my denial to accept that it isn’t what it was and that his claims that he doesn’t ever want it to be that?  I guess denial has to be comforting or we’d all rather look at reality…

I’ve never known a reality before that has so many holes and soo much confusion to it though.  Or do I create those in my mind?  I just don’t know anymore. 

He let me in at 6 am, which was shocking…and he held me so close as I sobbed my heart out…half of those tears from the loss of my friend and half from the pain and confusion of the man holding me as I cried.  And I told him all the things I don’t say anymore.  The same things he says to me when he comes over drunk.  That nothing makes sense until I’m next to him.  That when I contemplate life, I sometimes have to think that 4 hours of utter bliss followed by a sense of agony is better than spending those same four hours fighting with myself.  Other times when life still seems eternal, I think holding out for myself and what I really want is the best choice. 

I just started wondering if I knew I would be gone tomorrow, would “settling” for just those few hours of pure happiness feel as though I compromised myself?  Would it matter? I think I’d just be grateful to have the memories of those hours to take with me beyond….  I don’t think that on the last day of my life, I will regret anything but the times I wasted, fighting myself into staying away..hoping that what once was will be again if I can just stay away from that joy and insist on all or nothing.

To live each moment as if it were your last…come what may before and after or to plan and contemplate, maneuver and fight trying to mold life into exactly what I want….still having no reassurance that I’ll get that in the end anyway.

And what does God want?  I feel He would want me to uphold my personal morals in the face of desire and seeking pleasure.  Then, I think He doesn’t want us to suffer, does He?  I have lost my friend and my entire sense of what’s right or wrong anymore.

I wrote a letter to God asking him.  Now, I have to just find the faith that He will answer.

Every Little Kiss

3 o’clock in the morning and I wake up with Bruce Hornsby’s Every Little Kiss running through my mind!  Can’t recall the last time I heard that song!!  How on earth did it end up in my head in the wee hours of the morning, waking me up?

Accupuncture yesterday was incredible!!  I had the most beautiful vision of my daughters and I walking along a path with big gorgeous green trees on either side.  The sun shining between them down on us while we held hands.  Shiny ribbons of soft light linked us, light that moved and breathed flexibly.  Confidence and happiness surrounding us like a bubble of protection.  Mark was there too somehow, only not in the vision specifically… maybe just off to the side a little?  It was refreshing and invigorating…comforting.  The ribbons that linked us, the light that surrounded us was love.  It was the strength of our love keeping us safe.  And with all the questions and doubts, wonderings, opportunities and choices, somehow I knew we were taking the right path.  This was the right one for us.  And I think it was leading us to Mark in Vegas maybe…?  Not sure, but that’s what it seemed.  No trees like that in Vegas though and I sure do love the trees – great big woody green yummy trees! Wondrous sources of protection in their own right, I suppose…

Having vivid dreams since returning fron Vegas vacation.  Waking early in the morning again too:-(  Somehow waking at 3 or 4 am in Vegas wasn’t as frustrating.  Maybe since I knew it was actually 6 or 7 am here?  It was peaceful that time of the morning there.  I could sit outside on the patio, watch the stars in quiet reverance and drink in the moonlight, letting it wash over me like a fountain of natural life giving energy.  I didn’t expect the moon to be so bright so close to the city!

Dreamt of BZ the night before last.  It was a nice dream.  I missed her and I told her so, of course.  We were catching up on everything.  I don’t really miss her like that, but in my dream I did?  Wonder why?  Or maybe I just didn’t want to hurt her feelings in my dream because I felt like I’m supposed to miss her?

On my way to accupuncture yesterday, I saw DK.  He was pacing in front of his house on his cell phone, wearing a red hoodie with the hood up.  I stopped to ask if he was okay (gosh!?) and he hung up his phone laughing snidely.  As soon as he said he was okay, just waiting for his “buddy to pick him up for the gym”, I was backing out of his driveway, even as he was speaking.  I did not want him to mistake my stop for anything but a caring for his well being and safety, nor give him the chance to think it was anything else whatsoever.  I would stop like that for  anyone I know in my neighborhood who looked as though they might need some help.  Knowing he was fine, made me kick myself for stopping, even so briefly.  What am I trying to do?  I had such wonderfully happy energy yesterday.  Was I trying to make sure it drained away into misery?  I somehow always feel safe like that; safe to push the limits…  as though he can’t affect me even if he does try.  Yet, I truly know better.  I cannot dance with the devil without the agony of having my spirit manipulated.  Nor does he ever need my help really…at least not the kind of “help” I have to offer.  So, why did I even bother stopping to see that snide, sly smirk on his face. 

I know he got our letters telling him to stay away.  All three of us sent them and I have to hope he might honor that.  I made a subtle threat in mine to call the police if he shows up again.  Not an outright threat, as I know my own limits, but a subtle innuendo that I’m hoping will make him think twice and at least worry a little that I might actually mean it….  Worry enough to stay away, I hope!