Tag Archive: pain


Toxic Parents


I am reading this book by Susan Forward called Toxic Parents (Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life).  I am really enjoying it so far.  I can see a little of my family in each chapter.  I grew up alternately feeling invisible and feeling conspicuous. There was a part of me that longed to be seen, to be known and accepted… yet – there was another part of me that waned to hide, that wanted to blend into the background as to avoid pain.  It was a mass of confusion.   Having on the one hand parents who gave us gifts and spent time with us and took us on vacations… and on the other hand those same parents systematically broke us into pieces.  My father would call me beautiful, then accuse me of being vain in virtually the same breath.  My mother just stood by and did what-ever he wanted.  My father would get angry with us and whip us and my mother would have us go apologize to the man.   I never did understand what my crime was.  All these years later I still feel pulled apart by it all.  Will I ever be whole?

 

Mixed messages


Fall always makes me think of home.  I have so many good memories of this season… bonfires, roasting marshmallows, the smell of hay and sweet-feed in the barn mingled in with the smell of fresh milk after milking our cow…cool mornings being up before sunrise and looking up at the stars while tending to the animals… long evenings filled with family and music outside with lots of food and laughter and noise.  These are the things I miss about my family…my old home.  When I think of those cool nights when I would sneak out of the house and go for a walk by moon-light and listen to the call of the whippoorwills, I can’t remember why I was so unhappy there.  It’s like these good memories crowd out all the bad ones and I feel stupid for being so miserable.  Then I think about all the abuse, all the pain, the feeling that I was unseen, the feeling that I was property meant to serve a purpose in my home… and I remember.  I remember how alone I always felt. I remember having to act like a pretty little happy robot just to survive.  I remember how no negative emotion was allowed to show in my home. I remember being treated like a servant and not a daughter.  I remember being screamed at and berated… I remember.  Looking back all the things I loved most about my child-hood had nothing to do with the people and everything to do with the season, the activities, the animals, the sky… and I am determined to recapture that in my adulthood.  I am determined to stop… to look around… to enjoy this beautiful world and to recapture my youth.

So broken


I feel so broken and bleeding… I don’t know what to do anymore.  I feel like I can’t get anything right.  I feel like a mess…like everything I do wrong is magnified and the things I get right are inconsequential…I feel like everything that breaks or goes wrong around me is my fault and if I were only better they would be ok…  I feel like a freak, a failure.  Why would any-one want me?  I am a disaster.

So tired


…so tired of feeling like I can never tell the truth…

…so tired of holding back most of what I think and feel…

…so tired of protecting everyone from myself…

Please let me be free.

Please love me for who I am, not who you expect me to be.

 

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.

I’m not okay


I’m not ok, I’m not ok, I’m not ok… all I can think is I am so broken and ruined and worthless..  Life isn’t supposed to be this way.  I am in so much pain.  I don’t know what to do, I don’t know what to think, how to feel.  I think I am going crazy!  I can’t get my thoughts together.  Please help me…

Rant


I am tired of hiding my heart like it is something to be ashamed of.  I am tired of being discarded and disregarded like so much garbage.  I am tired of being ignored, of being stepped on, of being hurt over and over again.  Don’t judge me!  Stop telling me I am not enough!  Stop telling me I am not thin enough, not smart enough, not ambitious enough, not diligent enough… stop telling me I don’t work hard enough… stop telling me I don’t feel enough… I feel it all! Stop telling me I am not good enough, stop telling me that I will never be enough!  Just stop talking!  I don’t have to take this any more!  I am enough, I do enough, I feel enough, I am smart, I am beautiful, I am strong!  I can do this!

Terrified


I can feel you slipping away from me

feel your warmth fade to nothing…

please don’t leave me here.

I cannot bear this.

The Temptation


I felt the temptation to cut again yesterday stronger than I have in years.  It’s so frustrating… I thought I was past this… Some days the pain is just too much and I want some relief.  The thought of  a sharp blade was so comforting and alluring…like a siren’s song.  I don’t want to go down this path again.  I decide my future, and my future is not drowned in numbness-walking through life like a zombie.  I want to feel and be alive and real.  I want a life of honestly dealing with my emotions not running from them to booze or blade or drugs or sex or danger.  I want to breathe in every second of this precious life – even the parts that are painful or frustrating.   I want to be alive.  Please, God, help me…


She is fierce – eyes blazing

daring the world

to come closer.

She is confident and untouchable

a Norse goddess

destined for Valhalla.

She is expert at battle strategy

and can defend anyone

defeat any foe.

She rescued me.

She became me

She hates me.