Tag Archive: hope


The Windy Day


I went kayaking with some friends on Saturday.  It was blustery and cold and perfect.  We went out to Reed Bingham State Park.  It was gorgeous!  We paddled up river for about 2 hours then turned around and came back.  I love the feeling of being out on the water –  maneuvering between cypress knees and through shallow bogs and narrow passages.  I love the feeling that something unknown and wonderful could await just around the next bend.  I love the beautiful hush of the river passing through the deep woods.  There’s something profoundly healing about being out in nature…something that, as author John Eldridge wrote, let’s you know there is room for your soul.  Every time I get out on a garden path or hike a trail or kayak a river I can fill my chest expand…can feel as though I have room to breathe – to belong.  I’ve decide to do this more often… I am not going to wait until I am so stressed out i can barely function to do something healing and nice for myself.   I am going to have a standing appointment with myself to go out and have a good time…t o surround myself with something beautiful and give myself permission to be…

Hope


I am going to be ok… I have been working so hard and making so much progress.  I am excited about my future for the first time in as long as I can remember.   I feel so full of hope and promise.  I feel like I’m getting the hang of things.  I know what I want and I know what I need to do with my life.  It’s a nice feeling – I know I don’t have everything together – but I know I will be happy one day.   Strange, this feeling of hope.  I think I’ll just enjoy it for once.

Thoughts on doing battle


    

   I feel like I am in the fight of my life.  I am up against so much.  Not only am I still coming to terms with my past abuse, I am trying to break my present cycle of self-abuse.  I was feeling all proud of myself thinking I had come so far… and to be fair I have made a lot of progress – but I have a daunting amount of work ahead of me.  I am nearly crippled by this.  I don’t know how to be real.  I am really good at faking it.  I look great on paper – happily married, good career, room for growth and promotion in my field, 2 college degrees, a savings account, pets, friends… We own our home  and cook meals way more than we eat out… we hike when we can on weekends and try to play tennis once a month… The reality is  we don’t have it together.  I don’t have it together.  I don’t even know where “it” is to get it together.  I have no idea where to start.  I’m reading books, doing my devotions, listening to Christian music, going to therapy and yet “it” eludes me. 

    I don’t want to go through the motions, I want to live.  I am fighting to live – to breathe – to have a thought or opinion I don’t feel I have to apologize for.  I am sick to death of being sorry all the time!  What am I sorry for, existing? breathing? being?  I have no idea… I just feel perpetually apologetic and frankly pathetic!  This is not me… every fiber of my being screams and rails against this shell of a person I have become.  I have to defeat her.  She may have served a purpose at one time but those days are long gone and now instead of helping me she is slowly undermining me – turning me into a mindless, whimpering drone.  I am not this woman.  I am passionate and alive.  I am angry and strong and am not going to put up with this any more!  I am fierce and loving and loyal and I get what I want because I fight for it.  I am not this mousey, lay down and die disguise I have been wearing…  I am not this afraid to look you in the eyes broken down woman who I have been pretending to be lately. 

    I am putting on my armor – I am sharpening my weapons – I am stoking this furnace and I will burn off this shell in a wash of heat and light and hope.  I will find myself again and I will not be burdened by all of this fear any longer.  I deserve better.  I am worth fighting for and if any one is going to fight for me I had better start the battle.  I am loved, I am fiercely guarded, I am cherished, I am Captivating.  I will defeat these shackles and melt away these chains and I will rise up.  I am an amazing woman.  I am strong.  You haven’t seen anything yet.

Little Girl Blue


Little girl, pigtails and blue-jeans

all muddy and smiling so big!

I love to watch you fling out your arms

and twirl in the sunshine. You see

the world through uniqe eyes that

accept with blind faith the beauty

and wildness of the world was created for you.

You know instinctively that  joy is

your reason for being.  You take delight

everywhere you find it and accept

without question that happiness is yours.

Perhaps I will come twirl with you today –

and you can show me the world through your eyes.

Father’s Day


Father’s Day came and went this year like every year before it – full of conflicting emotions and empty of truth.  What has ‘father’ meant to me?  Why should I celebrate a day for him?  I’m so confused.  ‘Father’ has been ‘tyrant’, ‘teacher’, diciplinarian’, ‘grouch’,’hateful’…’father’ has also been ‘fun’, ‘companion’, ‘playmate’ and ‘preacher’.    The trouble for me is there are too many faces, none of them consistant… few of them friendly.  One good day is supposed to erase months of yelling, insults, fear and humiliation.  One day spent laughing together is supposed to make me forget being ruled with an iron fist and a sarcastic sneer.  Daddy, I forgive you… I just can’t be the sacrificial lamb anymore… you may find me more lion than you remember me…

Siren


There’s something out there that is calling to me. 

I hear the voice clearly – haunting – chilling-alluring.

I long to follow… but I am so afraid.

It whispers, teases, shouts – and still I stand-

frozen and impotent.

When I break free of this I will run blindly

into that tantalizing music of freedom

and find my laughter waiting for me there.

Just Beneath the Surface


 

I can feel the truth just beneath the surface of all my conversations.  It waits there, lurks… longs to be released.  This truth is a powerful, angry thing… all muscle and sinew… all teeth and scales – like a great dragon – pacing and gnashing its teeth.  I could destroy you with my truth.  I feel the power of it and know that it would pierce your armor (even if you do not show it).  My truth lies in wait… languid and appearing lazy below these calm waters… beautiful and deadly… waiting to pull you to your death. 

I have had it caged so long I have forgotten how to let it out from time to time… I fear it will break free from its prison – that it will escape and destroy you before I can contain it.

Distant Thunder


I hear the rumbling in the distance and it calls to me…

Secrets whisper, then shout to be heard

Wind caresses – then punishes…

So turbulent… so peaceful.

I long to enter the storm and disappear.

For my Husband


Unbidden, thoughts of you crowd my mind…

I cannot elude your smile,

your voice.

I feel myelf slowly consumed by you

as I seek a more intimate

connection.

I wish to bond to you, to mold myself

completely to your skin, your heart

your spirit.

I seek to lose myself in your wonderment

your love, your passion and

wild goodness.

I want at once to be your child, wife,

mother, lover, teacher and

devotee.

I want to worship at your alter in a

pagan ritual of lust and sex

and blood.

I approach idolatry in my

devotion to you. May God

forgive me.

I fear I cannot escape this – but more

still – I fear I shall choose

to abide.

 

Adrift


In a torrrid sea of faces

and voices

I cling to you.

Fighting violently

I resist the pull

of my old life…

of lies and pretending

of repression and unspoken violence.

I don’t want this anymore.

I crave peace,

unending.

So today I figtht

so that tomorrow

I may heal.

3-20-11