I am so not okay… I am not going to be okay any time soon. I am broken and lost and hurt and angry… I am lost and confused… I am so very tired… Did I say “fine” when you asked how I was… ? Don’t worry… I just don’t know how to say how I am. I am… not okay. I am… so very… so profoundly broken.
Tag Archive: honesty
Not okay
Feelings
I find it so hard to stay in my heart – to stay in my feelings… My default setting seems to be numb. I feel so awkward most of the time. I feel so much – but it is buried so deep I appear vacant. My heart hurts. I am so tired and so broken. I carry this horrible weight that threatens to suffocate me at times. I feel at war. At war with my pain, at war with my heart, at war with the terrible pull of numbness, addiction, alcohol…. at war with my faith and my anger… at war with my passion and my passivity. I can feel in one moment like a giant, like a force to be reckoned with and in the next moment I feel like I am not even real and I give in to my despair. I fear I will drown in it. I know I am all over the place and this may not even make any sense… but there you are. Pieces of me. Broken, fearful, lost, anguished, angry, confused, passionate, apathetic… My heart is a patchwork of pain and pleasure….but honestly, mostly pain. I ache. I feel heavy with the weight of my broken heart…
Giving Up
I am giving up on you. Every time I think of you I feel this overwhelming rush of disappointment. I wonder (sometimes) why I ever bothered. It’s not like you felt my love anyway. I tried so hard to love you. I cooked special dinners (which you criticized) I came to visit (which you took for granted) I doted on you and tried so hard to please you… but I give up… You never wanted to know me. You never liked anything that had to do with me. I feel like every time my heart was brought out for you to see it was criticized, judged, not good enough, too emotional, too much of a bleeding heart, not loving enough, not affectionate enough… too depressed, too dark… too sad… too silly… I am tired of it all. I give up…
I am enough. I am enough for me. I am good enough, smart enough, kind enough, loving enough… I am enough. I can do this.
The Bees
I’ve got that feeling again… the buzzing of angry bees in my chest. I wonder sometimes how long this struggle with anxiety will last? Will I carry this with me always? Will I ever get to the place where I can feel safe and at home in my own skin? What battle am I fighting today that I feel this way? When do I get to rest? I feel like I have been fighting one battle or another since the day I was born. I guess we all are in some form or fashion. I long for peace. I long for comfort… I long to feel. I have been numb for far too long. I guess I am finally learning where the bees come from… those angry bees that swarm in my chest and make it hard to breathe. I think they are all the emotions I have refused to let myself feel. Now to loose the bees and regain some measure of peace I am choosing to feel all the painful things that I would not (or could not) feel. I am crying and raging and curling up in a ball and allowing myself to feel small and vulnerable… I am fighting for me. I will win.
Open Letter
***WARNING: This may be triggering***
You know who you are. I knew you thought I wouldn’t remember… or maybe you thought I was too afraid to say anything… Maybe you are so supremely arrogant that you have yourself convinced that you did not do anything wrong… I do not pretend to know your motivations… I do not pretend to know what was on your sick mind. You know what I remember? I remember being held face down bent over a bed with my face pressed into the suffocating softness and thinking that this was how I would die. I remember the pain as you ripped into me – penetrating me harshly – feeling like a knife… I remember rough hands and a harsh voice. I remember longing for death that day and many, many days afterward. I vowed to never be vulnerable again… I vowed to never let you see me hurt… do you remember calling me a touch-me-not? Did you ever wonder why touch made me recoil? Why touch made me feel sick inside? I doubt it… everything was about you, wasn’t it? It was about your needs, your feelings, your ‘right’… I am tired of feeling like this. I am tired of feeling like I am not allowed to feel. Yes, I have a lot of pain – but I am strong enough to feel it. I am strong enough to survive you – I am strong enough to survive anything. I revoke my vow. I can be vulnerable. You will never touch me again, but I will love being touched again. I will not live locked in my solitude. I will feel again and I will make a new life. I will survive you yet…
Haunted
Haunted by memories I grasp for you and quickly push you away.
I cannot stomach this closeness yet I desire your touch – crave it – NEED it…
Fear arises as the brush of your hand resurrects ghosts thought long exorcised…
My body trembles, haunted by the abuse that still lives in my skin and in my breast, beating like a second heart.
It is chaos here… shouts, whispers, whimpers, cries…
Locked in the asylum of my mind.
Feeling Uneasy
I hate this feeling… this vague uneasy feeling that something is wrong. I got in a slight accident yesterday and clipped a garbage can knocking my passenger mirror through my passenger side window… there was a loud bang and an explosion of glass flew through the car. It was terrifying… it was dark and foggy and I did not see the garbage can hanging out into the road. Now I cannot shake this. I feel paranoid and worried and really uneasy. It’s ridiculous… All evening with my husband at home I have felt like he was mad at me or unhappy with me… and he’s not – we talked things out and he’s very warm and understanding – it’s just me. I feel like the bottom is about to fall out. I know this is just the accident and the dust will settle soon… but in the mean-time I really want to get back to normal. I hate feeling so raw and vulnerable.
Unfiltered
So many memories have been flooding back to me lately. There is something about the Fall that brings me back to my childhood the experiences I had then. The smell of hay, the crackle of a bonfire, the taste of chili, the crunch of leaves underfoot and the sight of pumpkins appearing on door-steps and front porches. My senses are alive with things remembered. Things forgotten are knocking on the door of my sub-conscience. It is a strange feeling to have so much anger and fear co-mingled with such a sense of nostalgia and contentment. I remember the sound of my grandmother’s voice… the soft touch of her hand on my cheek… and the twinkling blue beauty of her eyes. I also remember the tense atmosphere of my home life and the dread that I grew up feeling. I remember the harsh unpredictability of my father and the anxiety that would flood me when I heard his truck pull in the yard. I would jump up and feel this flood of fear and adrenaline – knowing that there was no way of predicting what we were in for when he walked through the door… not knowing which dad we were going to get. It is strangely amazing to me how so much good and bad can be so intertwined in one life. I know that’s the way it is… that’s life… but it still seems to defy logic. My head is buzzing with memory flashes…
…blood flowing from my wrist after my first suicide attempt and the panic/relief that I had failed… the boisterous joy of family gatherings and playing with my cousins… the humiliating, painful, surprising “smack” of my father’s hand across my face… the anticipation of a hay-ride at dark with story-telling and song… the relief I would feel after cutting myself and watching the blood flow down my legs… the smell of fresh pumpkins and the mess we would create when we carved them… the constant feeling that no matter what I did I would never be more than a disappointment… the thrill of watching for shooting stars in the cool evenings on New Moon nights…
I feel like a merry-go-round a-la Tim Burton. I honestly don’t know what to feel… I just have to continue on this journey to solidify this into one life… and make peace with that life.
Banks Lake
My favorite local kayaking place is Banks Lake in Lakeland, GA. The view is breathtaking and the weather was absolutely perfect today – it was clear and cool and windy. I’m already ready to go again.
Creepy-crawly
I hate days like this… I feel twitchy after spending the last 2 days pulling weeds in my gardens and having bugs crawl all over me… I still feel like I’m going to have a panic attack. I know I should be used to this by now and I know bugs are no big deal, really, but I still cannot help the way I react. I try so hard to play it cool and to stay calm. I have these huge spiders in my flower beds and when you startle them they run toward you – not away from you. It freaks me out. Not to mention the beetles, ants and roaches that live in the taller weeds and thick grasses that I have to deal with. I hate this feeling… everything that touches me makes me flinch. I’m so jumpy. I think I will just sit calmly the rest of the day and sip tea and watch Netflix.








