come into my closet, come under my bed, where you'll find me hiding,
the fear in my head.

abuse in the past, now, where do i start, making my future,
healing my heart.

crushed, and broken, falling fast-
needing comfort, make it last.

Friday, May 25, 2012

good gRief?

my post an obit on a wall 
grieved with the loss of a friend of a friend. 


....today i had a little tearful sMILE with said friend.

my friend
who lost his good friend
 about a week ago. 

this friend of my good friend was a good guy living with some life baggage -- as all human beings tend to do.

this good guy had some struggles, he died after consuming one particular struggle.
anyhow,
 left behind people who loved him,
who appreciated him,
who saw all the good stuff in this guy.

but the sMILE in the story is that this good guy did something really nice for someone else about a month ago. 

this story is one to share....i wish to shout it to the world!!!  [blogger will help :) ]

 --- be kind, you can't rewind life....but you can leave a legacy behind.



it goes like this:

a young couple came into the station
where this good guy worked.
they had just had a baby
and were headed home from the hospital.

home was about an hour away.

they had to be in a
special hospital
kind of far
from "home".

the young father needed to fill up with gas.
his credit card didn't work.
something about his own life struggles.
he was in a sad sorrow,
his young baby
and baby's mother in the car waiting.

so this good guy
spent his own money
to fill up this young couples car.

he also gifted them some drinks
and munchies for the road trip home.


the young man
overwhelmed
with the generosity
of our good guy
said "i will be back to pay you".

the good guy said
"no worries,
enjoy your new baby,
it's my treat"

here we are
-- a month later,

a week since
good guys sad passing
from this world

the young man comes back
into the station,

an hour from home

asking when good guy will be at work


"will you give him this envelope?"


my good friend of the good guy
with tears in his eyes
told the young man
about his friends passing.

the young man broke

tears shed,
a hug between two strangers

both touched by the loss
which
left an emptyness
in their embrace.

but....

the envelope
inside was a bill - to pay back the debt

and a baby birth announcement


the impact of good guys kindness
will live on in the young mans son

the baby boy
middle name --
"good guy"

for in this strangers kindness
to these two young parents
trying to get home

left a legecy


baby boy "good guy" last name


i suppose the moral of this for me
is that
when you remember
the print of a person
in your life ---

at times
there
can be
found
a lot of good
among the gRief.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

darkness

quick update on this post below:  he is home and safe, doesn't change any of what i felt and experienced....weird that now i just feel silly.  but those feelings of worry for a child are so real and heartfelt.  he did fall asleep watching the movie; right after the one AM -ish text, woke up confused and sad that he worried me.  with his head injury and new meds it just makes things hard...for him...and for me.



i didn't know that darkness could be so black.

in the middle of the night.
no matter how many houselights you turn on....it is still dark.

when your child is missing.

no one took him,
he went to a friends to watch a movie

last i heard

that was about 1 AM.  he texted me.

  "the movie is long mom,
we are just finishing up,
  i will be home soon"


at 1:37 AM i sent
"i am still up"

i reminded him at 2:10 that a movie can be shut off
and midnight is still when i expect him home.


i reminded him that i always wait up
for him to get home
a hug goodnight,
and it is [a good night] - when all are home---  safely tucked in


its morning now.  and still dark.

i didn't sleep.
i think i have walked a permanant path in my carpet,
from downstairs -- his room
to the upstairs front windows

looking for his car.

listening for the sounds of him coming home.

after about 2 AM my reply to him wasn't so patient
he hadn't replied

...since 1:18

i am still pacing
this early bright dark morning


JUST NOW
the phone rang -- never has my heart pounded so much


it was just a junk call

he is still missing



we live on a busy street. even in the middle of my darkest night people are coming and going.  that is a lot of sounds.  i listen -- but i know the distinct sound of my sons car, and none are his.


i usually hear his keys as he spins them on the way up to the door.
the sound of the screen, his footsteps, the key in the lock

and then straight to my room,
to say "mamma, i am home"

but not last night.
not this morning.



i have checked mugshots on the computer (not because he is a naughty 17.9 year old -- but because i don't know what else to do)

i spent time on social networks -- looking at his friends who are friends with me; we keep an eye on our kids -- i thought.


i checked his sites
-- nothing ....that would make me worry

yet i worry more


at 3 AM and 3:20 and 3:49 and 4:19 i call his number

once i left a message
my voice was shaking

i wish i hadn't left a message like that
-- i don't
 want him
to worry
about me....worrying


my last text pleaded "whatever's going on i am just worried. please...let me know you are okay"


silence....and the darkest darkness


at 5ish AM i crawl back into bed
all my senses alert,
still listening for comforting sounds


i asked mr. B if i should call hospitals
he says no...we just wait

wait


waiting



still



i lay untouched in the darkness
and feel the tears roll down my cheeks

it is an unreal feeling
so strange
different
i have
never really
paid attention
to that feeling



i feel my heart beating
not too loud
not enough to block the sounds from the street

but enough that i notice the blood rushing in one valve
and out another

my heart is broke
heavy
hurting

but it still does it's work


and so does mr. B

he finally rolls to hold me
but not before asking if he can

he never wants to startle me
 in the darkness



and tonight was darker than most



tears kept running from my eyes
silence
and tears
and my heart


i pray

i really really pray



and this time --- i feel like i am not praying for me
but only to understand God's will

i say i know we have agency
and He can not charge my son
His son
to do what we both want

only can He comfort and give peace,
and understanding

i say i know that He knows where G is
and i don't think it is fair that i don't

...i wait for Him to answer me....

but silence...the quietest silence
in the darkest darkness

just please....you (God) know where he is
please don't let him feel alone
please don't let him be suffering

but i trust that you are keeping watch
and that we will get through this ---- darkness

i keep praying and it is just for my little big G
please remind him that we love him
that no matter what we just want him content and growing

and home


that if this night is really hard
and really dark
for whatever the reason

we love him... too... and we will be here....waiting


please remind him of who he is
and give him a glimpse of who he is becoming

and keep him warm


at some point i drifted into a dream
it was me and little G
seeing his anticipation of knowing all the why's and how's and what's that's of an eager toddler

it was his birth
it was remembering how he grew inside me

and a knowledge that he now is growing
outside of me

outside of my control


i vividly remembered my surgery a couple of years ago
how terribly broken i felt to have a hysterectomy

and how this little almost grown big G crawled next to me in the hospital bed

he said to me "mom, this has to be so hard for you, they took the place you first held me"


so sensitive for a young teen boy
and so wise

and yet last night as i felt my heart working overtime i knew that i really still held him within me

it was not where i carried him that held him first.
it was my heart.


i don't know what else to do this morning.
the other children are sleeping so peacefully
i am wide awake

listening still for the sound of him coming home

it's light, the sun is up

but it feels so dark



today may be the hardest day of my life....ever
i will have to live it to find out.



i am anxious
i thought today was going to be just another day.
i planned to get more plants for the garden
the kids are out of school
we might have taken a road trip -- to visit grandpa

i need to get a blood test, making sure no bad c-cells have grown back since my last surgery

i was anxious for that

now that doesn't seem so bad

i haven't stopped praying
haven't closed my pleading

my mind wanders to all the loved ones passed on...recent and ways back
i think of them knowing a little something about where G is
and wish they could tell me.

but i hope they are watching over
until he returns to home


my heart is not trembling as much
i think it is keeping quiet...calm
so i can listen
i am still pacing
watching

wondering, yes...what will come of today,

the light of the darkest night and early day is still

and i hear him not so many years ago chanting with me:

"see you later alligator
after while crocodile
not to soon baboon
give a hug lady bug
be sweet parakeet
so long king kong
out the door dinosaur
see you soon racoon
blow a kiss jellyfish
and bye, said the fly
take care polar bear

bye bye butterfly"



this is so surreal
in the light of today we have to know something
i can not imagine the darkness of another night


if you are a prayerful person
please pray
whatever comes of today...
my hope... he will return home
or ....the alternative

i appreciate your faith
while mine is faultering
in the darkness
of light today

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

an oBiT on a wall

hit like a brick wall today.

i went into a store in my neighborhood.  just for a pack of peanuts, a lemonade. 
i left with a broken heart

...again.


what is happening.
i don't understand.


sure...there is life

so there is death.

but why so much?


lately.


a week and a half ago with complete indifference i filled up with gas.  paid the attendant.

the attendant, the afternoon guy. 
sure.  there are times when i say more than 20 on pump 3.  sometimes i say hello.  sometimes i even venture to ask "how ya doin today". 
he always smiles, very polite,
does his job, sets the pump. 
he always says have a great afternoon. 
see you again.



see you again....

not this time.

this time....it is too much to think about.  he was 47 years old.  47 years young. 


only today i learned that he has been living with his mother,
just two blocks from me.

this poor sad women,
now alone,
lonely.

missing her son, i am sure.

he died at home.



Grieving is usually done in 5 stages:

denial,
anger,
bargaining,
depression....
and finally acceptance.
I guess you could say I am in all of these stages at once.


long ago my foster mother....at mile 191
the loss a few years back of my grandmother
the loss of my mother early last year
the loss of my brother this last march

many other losses, unmentioned - but in my heart they ache

some i still feel denial
some ANGER
some pleading and bargaining
with the Lord in those lonely moments...

WHY.....................................

and depression.  yes there is depression.


i guess i can believe that acceptance will finally come
if i feel all these stages so acutely
most assuredly it will come

just when?



yes
....many things that have happened that have brought grief,
and the process of grieving.

It is a healthy process,
...but long....and lonely...


you CAN get addicted to a certain kind of sadness

"you can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness"



i love this version (more)




You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end.

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)




Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and I feel so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[Kimbra:]
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
Part of me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

[Gotye:]
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and I feel so rough
And you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know

...somebody.

who I was, who I am, who I plan to be...

i am trying to heal from severe childhood sexual, emotional,
physical, and mental abuse; and abandonment.


this is my story.

i have good and bad days, and some days the odds seem insurmountable.
i cling to the hope that healing will come to mend the shatter pieces of my heart, mind and body.


mile 191, well, you will understand as you read along.
mile 191, portions of my past have a link on the top right.
mile 191, bottoms up. hears to you and to me.


please, if you know me, just let me know you found me. i need honesty. (and please do not use personal names)
if you want to follow my story, please try to heal with me.
if you want to share with me, please do.
i will post bits of my pain as i can, and leave it here.
i once thought that i would publish...i haven't had the courage.


this is my closet, you are welcome to come in.
just know this is my refuge, healing takes place here,
maybe it will be a refuge to you too.


Quotes from Suvivors United - Standing Strong Together Against Abuse

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you stop to look fear in the face.
Eleanor Roosevelt

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.
Helen Keller

Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.
Booker T. Washington

When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard, ' I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'
Sydney Harris

Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.
Richard L. Evans

Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.
Joshua J. Marine


What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks CORNUT32! ♥



What a sweet award....and thanks for creating something so wonderful that can be passed along to bloggers who are indeed making a difference by sharing their lives.

I invite all my faithful and dear blogger friends to take this award. You indeed have made a difference in my life.

Thank you so much for being with me on my journey to heal....mile 191