Time

Time. Timing. Taking time.

This is a new concept for me.

What I realize is that I am a person of impulse. Because of having fear of that "in between" time, that time where nothing is happening (no relationship, no project, nothing new), I tend to jump into different things rather impulsively. This may be why I have found myself either not finishing projects (because I realize after several weeks or months that I don't really like it and maybe am not even good at it) or being in a relationship that may not be best for me (because I get swept away by the initial emotion of it all and take actions that drive the relationship into full commitment status too soon only realizing a couple years later that maybe i don't want to be with that person as much as i thought i did but now i'm stuck). That is not to say that I haven't loved or that my relationships were a big mess. But, I jump very quickly. And I know it's out of fear.

So. What am I afraid of? The obvious answer would be "being alone." I'm not sure that's totally it, though. I LIKE the excitement of something new. I like the feelings I get at the beginning of things. Beginning a project, beginning an endeavor, beginning to learn a skill, beginning a relationship. Who doesn't like that? I hear people all the time saying that the beginning of their relationship was so fun....all the flirting, attraction, intensity of emotion.....that's all fun, and new, and exciting. It's all-consuming. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe we shouldn't be consumed. Maybe we should feel what we feel and enjoy it, but take our time to savor, roll it around in our mouth, go slowly, get to know the person/thing, take time AWAY from it and then go back to it.

It's a fast food world, right? Everything has to happen quickly. If I like you then I should love you. If I feel attracted to you then I should make love to you. If I have fun knitting one day, then I should do it everyday. Etc.

I like to think I'm a patient person. And, I am. I am a patient mother, friend, lover. But I'm not patient with life. I'm not patient when I feel like I want something. Maybe the fear is that if I don't grab ahold of it RIGHT NOW, then I either will not be able to have it later or that it will pass me by. There is an anxiety that goes along with my impulsivity. And I think that anxiety is that I HAVE TO HAVE IT NOW OR IT WILL GO AWAY.

I'm a 41 year old woman learning how to take my time. With life. With people. With things. Learning how to sit in my present moment where nothing is really happening but where so much is happening. Learning how to let an idea percolate without DOING anything. Just because I feel, or want, doesn't mean I have to DO anything. I can just sit and feel, right? I can sit and think about what I want, do I really want it? why do i want it?

Maybe I should start giving myself frames of time for different things. Like, for example:
1. Have an idea
2. Write about, think about, read about that idea (without TALKING about it) for 1 week.
3. If the idea is still good and interesting enough, talk to 3 different people about the idea. Spend 1 week gathering people's thoughts/opinions about my idea, while still thinking/learning/etc.
4. Look at the idea again and spend a couple of days (depending) re-thinking and morphing the idea based on what I've learned and heard/read.
5. If the idea is still exciting, interesting, and feasible...take one action on the idea.

and so on.....

This would be good for dating/relationships, too. Some variation. Maybe if I really approach it in a very structured way, then I would teach myself how to take my time and resist impulses.

Wow. Life is hard work. :/

Looking forward

I think this is the first time in my adult life that I am making decisions based purely on what I feel is best for ME and what I want. That sounds crazy doesn't it? When I was a young child, and all through my growing years, when asked the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?", I answered, "A Mom." It was never a question that I would give a large part of my life to mothering. And, I've never looked back. I've been a Mother for nineteen years and counting. And, I love it.

When J. died, I automatically made a decision to fall back into my default thinking....be a mother, foster mother, continue to care for children. Over the months, I've had a nagging in the pit of my stomach (which I know is my intuition) that was telling me that there is more. I've been feeling like I'm "done" with that part of my life. Obviously, I still have my children and I'm still committed to and love being their Mother. But, I don't want to Mother anyone else.

Over the past month, through my darkest grieving period, up until now, the feeling of freedom and excitement has been brewing. I've looked around, outside of my home, outside of Mothering, and outside of the things that have been my life, and have a desire to forge a new path. My children are growing, the youngest is still young, but he's out of the baby/toddler years and steadily growing into an older child. My oldest child is nineteen and striking out on her individual journey. I'm ready to discover ME and who I am, besides Mother/caregiver.

I went out last night, to a cultural event, and enjoyed the company of a new friend and marveled at life. I have such desire to learn new things, do new things, be new things. I've been exercising and feeling so energetic. My body and mind feels alive and like I'm discovering life. I no longer wish to tie myself down to the home. I want to go out, to discover culture and new people. I want to spend time until the wee hours talking and just being with people I care for.

And I don't feel afraid. I feel that I've been given a gift. I've been given freedom and possibility. I feel rooted and strong and confident. I don't know what comes next, but I know it will be good.

Medicine Wheel Circle

I attended my first Medicine Wheel Circle last night. I'm sitting with a woman who sat with a Hopi Indian elder to learn how to create and use the Medicine Wheel. Very simply put, Medicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone(s), and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center. During this circle, I will learn how to create my own Medicine Wheel and use it for meditation. I think it will be interesting and just another tool for spiritual growth and discovery.

Jamie's spirit was there with me, I know. Part of my reason for attending the circle is because I knew that it would give me connection with her. Native American spirituality was her path and I know she would be happy that I'm learning more about at least one part of it. I, of course, also want to learn just because I believe you can never have too many tools or too many paths to your higher self and Higher Power. But, I was looking for connection with her, as well. My psychic friend is also attending, and she confirmed that Jamie was there and that she will help me begin to learn about this.

My world is so different, now.

life

I feel really good so I need to write it down here. I feel alive. I feel excited. I feel like I'm being and doing exactly what she would have wanted and expected me to do. I have this really odd feeling that she feels that she set me free. I don't know if that's coming from inside, or coming from her, but it's what I'm intuiting. Our relationship was long, intense, challenging, and full of longing. For the last years, we both struggled to be who we were while being together. We both struggled with her addiction and illness/poor health. I loved her deeply and intensely, but in the last years it turned into something different. I was committed to her and she to me, but it became a caregiving situation for me and she (I think) felt a dependency that she was not comfortable with. I think she and I were so intertwined, so intensely connected, that it was beginning to be too painful and something had to happen. I read her journals, from years past, and she always had an intuition that she would not be on this earth for a long time. She knew that her time was short. I felt her looking at me sometimes, in the last two years, and she saw my health and my being 10 years younger, and she would sometimes comment on it. I knew then that she felt she was holding me from something. I would assure her that I was ok where I was and that I accepted her and all of her illness and dis-ease. But, it was a darkness. I loved her with all my heart and would have probably been with her for the rest of my life, if she were alive. But, I feel that her passing was a gift for both of us and I'm grateful for it. For her, it was freedom from the human shell that she inhabited so that her spirit and soul could move on in beauty and without the weight of dis-ease and suffering. For me, it is freedom from the weight of caregiving and the dysfunction of addiction and someone else's suffering.

So, I feel like I am shedding all of it, slowly but surely. I can feel life. I am alive and healthy and young. My body feels strong and my spirit feels free. The experience of caring for a dying loved one and then letting them go has changed me profoundly. I'm grateful for her allowing me to be a huge part of her journey in that way. It was all done with love. It was all done with compassion and acceptance. I am learning how to be quiet. How to sit with my SELF. How to just BE present. I see others around me and I know that I don't have to give up myself for anyone ever again, and I never will. I have learned about relationship, about partnership. I have learned that it's ok to be alone and that it's ok to like someone but not have to change who I am for them. I feel confident in who I am and love my life. I also love to love. I love passion and sex and relationship. But, I'm excited to create love in a different way. To hold back, to create relationships without anxiety, to built up to intensity rather than starting there, to pay attention to those little things that I might not like rather than ignoring them because of wanting, to be assertive and speak my truth and tell my story.

Life is good. I will hold her close, in a special place, and will think of her and all of the things she taught me for a long time. She and I are still connected, and always will be. But, I know that she is smiling at the energy she feels coming from me. I know she would be proud of where I am and where I am going. I hope that where ever her spirit is, that it is truly happy, joyous, and free.

emergence

I feel like I'm walking out of a very dark and very long tunnel. Out into light that's too bright and somewhat overwhelming, but warm and full of hope and possibility. I'm still just outside the tunnel and do feel a bit of an urge to turn back and lick my wounds in the darkness for awhile longer....but, I've made the decision to only look forward, remembering the lessons and experiences of the past but not dwelling there any longer. I feel alive. I feel relieved. Even though the sadness and pain lingers. I know it will fade and all that will be left are memories and gratitude.

profound sadness.
and anger.
allowing myself to feel it,
though,
is growth.

Mindfulness in Being

It's amazing to me that through grief I am learning what "Being" truly is. Through grief I am understanding mindfulness. I am understanding being still. All of these things that I could not be before....I now have no choice but to be them. I'm learning that I like these things. I like to just sit. To be. Mindful. I'm finding fullness in the emptiness of grief. Intense.