Day 120: Long Time Sun

I don’t know how to fake being happy. I am an open book. Even if someone taught me how to fake happiness, I couldn’t do it.

My eyes can’t lie, and neither can my soul. This inability to fake my emotions can bring about challenges. Perhaps cause others discomfort. Even my love can be over zealous, and maybe a bit smothering, depending on interpretation. And, thusly, so can my sadness.

But my gift of truth in emotions is greatly beneficial. I see things in me quite clearly, and have an expansive self-awareness. I am able to make beneficial change for myself. I can also see emotions in others. Everyone is like a water pool to me—sometimes crystal clear, other times murky. I feel the waters. Some are cold, some warm, and others entirely refreshing.

I carry much feeling within—both others and mine. This can be an overwhelming experience. Sometimes my emotions cannot be separated from others. This is challenging when people I love are going through hard times. I often wake up feeling upset and not knowing why, until I find out a close friend is suffering. Today, several people I know are going through life challenges.  I feel a pull of despair. Other days I feel pulls of elation.

Today I also am experiencing my own transition, as I went from the tropical climate of Maui, Hawaii to the cloudy, rainy skies of Washington. My body’s physical pain is retriggered by the climate. My mind, too, is affected by the darkness of outdoors. I have bid goodbye to great friends on the island of Maui, and the healing salty sea. I have a houseful of people adjusting to time change and some sickness, too.

Today, I reflect on ways to raise my energy, despite the events circling within me and about me.  Today I reflect on my long time sun.

 

Long Time Sun

Sometimes I forget my long time sun.

I forget that I hold the key to my own joy, peace, and serenity.

I forget because I hold deep desires to be seen.

I forget that I am already connected and understood.

I forget because I long to be accepted.

I forget to love myself unconditionally.

I forget because I cling to external ideals, ideas, goals, and plans.

I forget to let go.

I forget because I fall into familiar patterns.

I forget I hold the light to freedom.

I forget because I want to be noticed, loved, and adored.

I forget I am enough.

I forget because of life’s unexpected twists and turns.

I forget life is an endless transitioning cycle.

I forget because I ache from others’ words and actions.

I forget to comfort my own heart.

I forget because I see truths I don’t wish to see.

I forget I can choose how to see my world.

I forget because I turn inward and focus on myself.

I forget I am not the only one hurting.

I forget because I think I am in the shadows of dark.

I forget that I am a long time sun.

 

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Where there is injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith

Where there is despair, hope

Where there is darkness, light

Where there is sadness, joy

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console

To be understood as to understand

To be loved as to love

For it is in giving that we receive

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

Maui 2012

Day 108: Swim Deep

I’ve been reflecting a lot as of late. Of my choices and my personhood. I am slowly transforming and transitioning. I long for Crazy Frog to come out and lighten Melancholic Me. But I recognize this as a growth process. A replanting of sorts. And so I turn to words. My forever comfort through the ever-changing life.

Swim Deep

I don’t know how to pretend.

I don’t know how to fake emotions.

I don’t understand shallow.

I don’t understand fickle or lies.

I love with depth.

I live with depth.

But the depths frighten me.

I swim in the deep waters.

While others sit on the edge.

I know not why.

I watch the watchers watch me.

I question my truth.

I doubt.

I ache.

I weep.

I worry.

I turn inward in fear.

I long.

I long again.

But I still swim deep.

I will for always swim deep.

For there are no better waters.

 

 

 

Day 67: Butterfly Red

Butterfly Red

The accident had happened fast.  No one had expected it.  I hadn’t meant to let go.

I had fallen headfirst, a good four feet, onto the unforgiving concrete. Riding atop my babysitter’s shoulders, I hadn’t thought not to bend my head back and look down. I was only having fun. No one had ever told me not to bend over. And I’d only had the chance to view my backyard upside down for a minute or two, before I lost my balance and fell.

Smack!

After the fall, the sitter screamed and rushed me indoors to the dining area. Her teenage friend was there, too—her screams equally loud and bothersome. For some time everything echoed and twisted and turned in the chambers of my ears. Blood rushed out of my head in every direction, staining all the bathroom towels. I was on the dining room table, up high, as everyone scurried about in nervous circles. I glanced down and spotted my Labrador Sugar. Through my tears, I saw she was panting and pacing, and whining some. My small hand met the warm oozing blood at the back of my head. So much blood.

I awoke, wet and hot, to discover myself trapped beneath a heavy blanket in some unknown place. Nothing looked familiar. I turned quickly and tried to rise up, but some force pushed me down. I was inside a nightmare… (The rest of the story is in the book Everyday Aspergers)

~ By Samantha Craft 2012 Based on true events

© Everyday Aspergers, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. https://aspergersgirls.wordpress.com

Day 55: Ghosts and Crumbs

“The Journey. The Journey is what brings us happiness. Not the destination.” ~ Peaceful Warrior

Kahlil Gibran

When I hurt, I try to understand others’ pains and struggles.

I use my pain for humility.

I use the pain to knock me off my pedestal and out of the driver’s seat.

I use the pain for clearer vision and rebalancing—to question my bearings, my ego, my strength and determination.

I am so blessed, as hard as the journey is, to be able to empathize with a variant of types and degrees of pain.

To learn from pain.

To make pain my teacher.

To connect with other people through pain.

I know this. I understand this.

I accept more pain will come.

Pain is not my enemy.

No one and nothing is my enemy.

Every person has good inside of them, even if the good is masked or painted over in the cloakings of black.

I bring Pain into the light.

When Pain is no longer hidden in shame, buried, or ignored, Pain stands equal with Joy.

Prophet by Kahlil Gibran: On Joy and Sorrow

 

On Joy and Sorrow Kahlil Gibran

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater thar sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

In my years of living, I have seen the most pain and the most strength in the rooms of support groups.

This piece is dedicated to anyone who has ever frequented the basements and halls of recreation rooms and churches, in search of companionship, understanding, and support.

I have found that the most accepting, loving, and open-minded people understand pain.

This is a true and fictional story. The essence is truth, but the facts and details are not. Because of anonymity and out of respect to others, I would not attempt to write a prose of someone’s actual experience, except mine. The feelings are true. The pain is true.

Some people claim recovery is like an onion; in the way you peel one layer of experience and emotion away to find another.  To me, recovery was more liken to being trapped inside the core of the onion itself and trying to forge my way through so I could breathe.


The Goodbye Girl

Laura Marling: Night After Night

You Light Up My Life

Below is a gift I received through the action of two kind souls.   

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Day 54: I Have Loved You For A Thousand Years!

To My Dear Son,

I have been selfish and blinded. I have hurt the most precious being on this earth, my very flesh and blood, my baby, my angel, my bear.

I am so very sorry. And you have every right to be mad at Mommy. You have a right to have emotions, to feel emotions, to have pain, to express the pain, to experience that pain, and to above all share that pain with whomever you choose to share that pain with. I love you so much that I am crying with joy. I am washing the tears from my cheek.  And I am crying big tears of “I am sorry.”

This is the most important letter I have ever written. The most important words I have ever written. And Mommy has written thousands of pages of words. You are that important.

When I was little, I promised myself every night and every day, in the morning light and in the dark, how I would love my child with all my heart. How I would never cause him or her pain. How I would be there. How I would carry the pain.

I would die for you. Right now. I would die for you. I love you that much.

I am sorry I haven’t shown you lately how much I love you. I am sorry I have ignored you. I am sorry I haven’t been present. It is my fault. And I am heart-broken because of the choices I made. You are not to blame, one bit. You did nothing wrong. You are perfect.

If you could see me now, crying louder than our doggy howls, crying so hard, because I never want you to feel alone or unloved, unnoticed or forgotten, you would understand how much you mean to me.

You would know that you are not Forgotten. That you are loved beyond measure.

You are my beautiful, divine, and loving son. I am the luckiest mom on earth! You make me smile with delight. You tickle me inside with your jokes and puns. You are amazing. You are brilliant. You are the joy that fills my day and the reason I fall asleep proud. You are a bright star that brings the family an element of surprise, adventure, truth, and great passion.

Our family is complete because of YOU!

Your passion is so huge that it fills the whole of our house. Your creations, inventions, and experiments—as they explode in our bathrooms, across our kitchen, on the balcony, and all around the house—they announce to the world: I am brilliant! I am creative! I am GREAT!

Our family is whole because of you. Because of your brilliance and charm. Your directness. Your ability to see and feel at a deep, deep level. Your gift of knowing things beyond this world. Your gift of bringing a smile to our face, over and over. Your memory is fascinating. Your strong will and determination is amazing.

You will go far in life. You have so very much to offer the world.

And I am so very sorry that I have not been there for you. I am ashamed. I am saddened. I was wrong.

I’ve been lost in my own world and pain. I’ve been hiding from events in my life. I’ve been afraid. I haven’t been brave like you. I haven’t been courageous like you.

But you know what?

You have made me braver with your words today.

Know why?

Because I love you so much, that your very words pulled me out from where I was hiding, and motivated me to stop being selfish, and to see the beautiful gifts in my life. Gifts like you, and your smile, and your loving eyes—and your huge, huge heart!

I am so blessed!

Look at you. Look what God has giving Mommy! A beautiful, intelligent, healthy, loving, charming, courageous boy. Who could ask for more? Why have I been so blinded in my own worries and fears?

You are glorious beyond words.

So this is both my sorry letter to you, my loving son, and my thank you letter to God.

Thank you God for my boy. Thank you for his angel heart, for his angel hugs, and for his patience with his mom. I know how blessed I am. Please forgive me for not appreciating this marvel you have placed before me, for this gift you have trusted in my care, for this wise being at my side.

“Thank you!” I shout from the highest mountain. “Thank you for this greatest gift in the whole of the world. Thank you for my glorious boy. For my super, fabulous kid who makes my world marvelous.”

Today, my son, I honor your words and concerns.  I honor you. I honor all of you. All parts of you. Everything about you is absolutely perfect. There is nothing I would change, nothing I would alter.

I can’t wait until you get home; I’m counting the minutes. I will get on my knees and say: “I’m sorry.”

Then I will wrap my arms around you, and say: “I  love you farther than all the universes can reach. I have loved you for a thousand years. Darling, don’t be afraid. I will love you for a thousand more! I will love you forever and ever! I am here.”

I love you my dear wonderful boy,

Your Mommy