The title is lifted from the subject line of a sympathetic e-mail I got from an e-pal.
Another exhausting Christmas, fortunately in the rear view mirror.
My mother says she wants to do the whole thing at their house next year. Has anyone read, "The Corrections" by Jonathon Franzen?
Interrupted by a kid. Telling me that if you "eat a bullet you can die". "Don't even ever eat a bullet."
This might be one of those posts, riddled with interruptions. Sent him downstairs to find some root beer that isn't there, and he brings back sparkling cider. So that means I need to get up to open it.
"Mom, what would happen if you drink a trillion beers?" This is a favorite question, with variations. I get desperately tired of answering: "Well, I guess you would die." "No, you would get very very sick and you would get drunk." I think we've been through this question-answer ritual at least a trillion times. I feel badly for finding it tiresome; I try to imagine what function it serves for him, to keep asking the same question over and over.
Christmas
A time when the whole of the western world suspends its disbelief in clinging to an article of faith: that this is a 'magical time'. A sort of mass hypnosis.
Oh God. Here they come again. One leaves, another one comes.
The problem with the 'magic of Christmas' is that you have to have drunk the koolaid. In my case it would have to be a lot of it. The other problem is, the members of my family HAVE, and so I have to participate. So I do, just making the minimum of effort to give the illusion of taking part, and wait for it to be over. The worst part for me, though, is that Connor and Scott are wholehearted believers (tho, to my dad's dismay-even though he himself is not particularly religious at any other time of year--they're believers in only the secular part) and I feel badly that I don't share their enthusiasm. They seem to chug on fine without me, though.
I guess this is a rant, huh?
Take a picture of this: My parents and Gary's dad sitting at the dining room table watching me cook and prep for cooking in the kitchen adjacent. My mom either drinking or trying to not drink. Looking at the clock, is it time yet? I'm preparing the sides since MIL is bringing a ham. My mom has a nervous habit of inappropriate laughter. It pops up in situations that don't really call for it, like when I'm cooking and they're going on and on about how much I'm doing and won't I sit down and take a break and look-at-this-she's-at-it-again. Well, I'm just trying to do the stuff ahead so that I'm not having to do it on Christmas Day, and I wish they'd quit commenting on it. I feel uncomfortable, wondering if the extent of my efforts make *them* uncomfortable, but it doesn't seem to make them uncomfortable enough to offer to help. Or better yet, to size up the situation for themselves and just step in and do it. I'm reprimanding Scott, who has just told my mother for the second time that she laughs "too much". I hate having to reprimand my kids for telling the truth when the truth is inconvenient for an older person. My father and Gary's stroking their right-wing penises in agreeing that *Muslims* are 'the problem', that 'they' hate all the wonderful things America stands for, they "hate America more than they love their children--they strap suicide vests on them", "Barak Obama is a Muslim because 'they' don't let you convert: once a Muslim always a Muslim". Add Gary's mother into the cacaphony on Christmas Day when she brings the ham over. She has a childish nasal pitch to her voice that lends itself to whining, which she does. I let Gary handle her; she follows him room to room whining: "It's not *fair*. Just because I don't have a computer I don't get the pictures you send your dad. Why don't you print them for me?" Then of course Gary and I are cold and distant---
Oh, this is useless. They're bugging me to make ice cream with the spherical ice cream maker they got for Christmas. I was probably degenerating into whining myself anyway. Gotta go help them.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Our beautiful dog Riser died yesterday
Sheila curled up next to Riser on her last morning
Riser before we knew her--a champion show dog
The boys and I took her in the morning to put her to sleep.
It *was* like putting her to sleep; her eyes just gently closed and she was done.
I picture her shoulders, and the space between her shoulder blades as she laid her head down. The magnificent coat she had, yellow with the hints of red that made an almost orange color. Her long neck that I stroked. This image is emblematic of that experience; that, and the shaved spot on her leg where the needle went in and the bit of blood that oozed from it.
(Then I feel troubled by images that have to do with the death-by-injection controversy for humans where supposedly they die in great pain only we don't see it because they are paralyzed by the first drug. I hate to think that maybe it only *looked* peaceful. I was then troubled by thoughts that maybe she hadn't really died, and that they were going to 'finish her off' after we left. Lastly I was troubled by images of them tossing her body like so much garbage onto a heap of carcasses burning in a furnace somewhere. Second-guessing my decision to not have her ashes returned to us. Bringing in financial concerns.)
I hope it was the right thing to have taken the boys. Intuitively, I think it was important for us to have gone through the process together.
Over the weekend she was off her food. I was uneasy about that because that's unusual for her. I noticed Sunday night that a lump she had by her nipple had grown. I'd been trying to ignore that but thought if it was growing it was time to have it excised. So I took her in only to have the lump take a backseat to the fact that she had fluid in her abdomen.
A very difficult day with Gary just home from Asia the afternoon before and the cool atmosphere between us. I'd decided to take her that day, Monday, as well as do the little bit of Christmas shopping I was willing to do because Gary was not going in to the office. I took Riser with me and after concluding shopping went straight over the hill to the vet's. When the fluid was discovered I left since they couldn't do the tap right away. I drove home to get the message from the dr. that it was bloody fluid and most likely a blood vessel tumor that had caused a rupture and internal bleeding. Essentially she was bleeding to death. I'd been weighing options about how far to go, even drew a sort of algorithm to help me separate the strands of my options; blood in the abdomen had been a stop-go-no-further. I felt ashamed about how the financial costs were such a factor. The vet was so kind and talked to me for quite a long time to help me sort out what I needed to be able to decide. I got back in the car and went and got her to bring her home so the boys would be able to say goodbye. Scott had a vision therapy appointment so I barely had time to drive down the hill, pick up the dog (as well as a list of prices for euthanizing), run over to the school to grab Scott and take him. Then later that night when we were all home together I told the boys that our dog was going to die. We spent the night with her on the floor then woke up yesterday with her weak, but still alive. I wasn't sure if she'd be able to get out the door let alone into the van, and I worried how I could get her up without hurting her belly.
When I talk about this experience I keep saying 'the three of us'. Me and the boys. Gary played only a peripheral part, if he could be said to have been involved at all. He did bring up the sleeping pads and bags for us and spread them, but he didn't sleep with us on the floor. I can see that just being 24 hours back from Asia he needed a good night's sleep before going in to work. However, he did seem to be outside of our grief circle. He never did bond much with the dog. At one point Connor accused, "You don't even care." I think part of that accusation is the awareness of how detached Gary had been all along. Should I have made more of an effort to include Gary? Did I in effect exclude him? Did he need a more positive invitation from me in order to include himself?
It was definitely the shared experience of the boys and me; I hope that they got a sense of the comfort they can take in shared loss and the need to show lovingkindness to each other. Intuitively it seemed right that we make the day an official day of mourning and do nothing else. Cry together in the sanctuary of our home.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Concluded
Wow. I have to wonder what all that was about.
The door is complete. It took as many as 10 visits and maybe more.
He is a born-again Christian, the fundamentalist kind. Not obnoxiously so, to be fair. He seems to go deeper than doctrine; the fundamentalist path does seem to connect him to the Divine. There were ways I met him there, from my own connection to the Divine. It's clear to me though that he would not recognize any other Way to that Divine, because that's the nature of fundamentalist Christianity. I made no effort to talk about my Connection, but he seemed to get it when I said that I believed that we were all manifestations of God and that our human lives are about seeking that connection. There were a few places like that where we found common ground, and there was no spiritual struggle.
I do think it cures me from that odd feverishness I had, and there's some relief in that, and some sadness.
I'm done for now.
The door is complete. It took as many as 10 visits and maybe more.
He is a born-again Christian, the fundamentalist kind. Not obnoxiously so, to be fair. He seems to go deeper than doctrine; the fundamentalist path does seem to connect him to the Divine. There were ways I met him there, from my own connection to the Divine. It's clear to me though that he would not recognize any other Way to that Divine, because that's the nature of fundamentalist Christianity. I made no effort to talk about my Connection, but he seemed to get it when I said that I believed that we were all manifestations of God and that our human lives are about seeking that connection. There were a few places like that where we found common ground, and there was no spiritual struggle.
I do think it cures me from that odd feverishness I had, and there's some relief in that, and some sadness.
I'm done for now.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Incoherent
Today my thoughts are just not bonding to words very well--I feel like the whole edifice collapses of its own weight when I try to do any articulation. So things are not only incoherent, they're fragile.
Here's a fact of today. I'm in a waiting posture that is inappropriate to the situation, and it's uncomfortable for me. I'm not supposed to feel like I'm a single person being stood up on a date when the guy who fixes the door calls to say that he has a quick job and he'll call when he's ready to come--and then 4 hours pass.
It's almost amusing, the predicament of blurring roles. If this were a pure professional/client transaction I might be annoyed at the unprofessionalism of his failure to update me, but I wouldn't have that peculiar waiting-with-hunger feeling. I probably wouldn't have hesitated to call *him* either, to ask if he's coming-today-or-what.
The problem is, there is something I'd hoped to say to him when we saw each other for the final fix on the door. I just wanted to tell him that it had been a nice experience for me, meeting him. That perhaps the 'grace of God' he alluded to accounts for it: he's been successful in allowing himself to be transparent and let the grace of God shine through. That what prompts me to say that is the fact of feeling lighter as a result of his presence; of wanting to do better and be better. That this is a remarkable quality to have, and surely has been remarked upon before. That it has unexpectedly shed some light on some spiritual lifting I've been doing--and thanks. I've been afraid of starting to say this and messing it up. And it's been tough to wait. He was to have come yesterday, but I called and asked that it be today on account of keeping Scott home from school after a night of vomiting. I had already waited nearly a week after the last time I saw him, when he scheduled our appointment for a time slot just before I go to the school to volunteer, the day before yesterday. He still hadn't finished but anticipated it was just assemble-it-all-in-25-minutes and it would be done. That was to have been this morning, and it appears that the words that have been burning a hole in my mind are going to have to stay parked there for a while longer. Contemplating that, I realize how tiring it's been.
So I guess I'm about to call and to ask if he's coming-today-or-what. It's kind of perplexing that he didn't update. Perhaps that's a clue that maybe the client/professional model is messed up a bit for him too by that friendship field I'd sensed between us. It makes it a little difficult to know how to proceed.
Update
I did call. Tomorrow. 10. Whew.
Here's a fact of today. I'm in a waiting posture that is inappropriate to the situation, and it's uncomfortable for me. I'm not supposed to feel like I'm a single person being stood up on a date when the guy who fixes the door calls to say that he has a quick job and he'll call when he's ready to come--and then 4 hours pass.
It's almost amusing, the predicament of blurring roles. If this were a pure professional/client transaction I might be annoyed at the unprofessionalism of his failure to update me, but I wouldn't have that peculiar waiting-with-hunger feeling. I probably wouldn't have hesitated to call *him* either, to ask if he's coming-today-or-what.
The problem is, there is something I'd hoped to say to him when we saw each other for the final fix on the door. I just wanted to tell him that it had been a nice experience for me, meeting him. That perhaps the 'grace of God' he alluded to accounts for it: he's been successful in allowing himself to be transparent and let the grace of God shine through. That what prompts me to say that is the fact of feeling lighter as a result of his presence; of wanting to do better and be better. That this is a remarkable quality to have, and surely has been remarked upon before. That it has unexpectedly shed some light on some spiritual lifting I've been doing--and thanks. I've been afraid of starting to say this and messing it up. And it's been tough to wait. He was to have come yesterday, but I called and asked that it be today on account of keeping Scott home from school after a night of vomiting. I had already waited nearly a week after the last time I saw him, when he scheduled our appointment for a time slot just before I go to the school to volunteer, the day before yesterday. He still hadn't finished but anticipated it was just assemble-it-all-in-25-minutes and it would be done. That was to have been this morning, and it appears that the words that have been burning a hole in my mind are going to have to stay parked there for a while longer. Contemplating that, I realize how tiring it's been.
So I guess I'm about to call and to ask if he's coming-today-or-what. It's kind of perplexing that he didn't update. Perhaps that's a clue that maybe the client/professional model is messed up a bit for him too by that friendship field I'd sensed between us. It makes it a little difficult to know how to proceed.
Update
I did call. Tomorrow. 10. Whew.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
12/6
Oh man, it’s taking a long time to get settled and I’m still thinking I need a couple of other things which necessitates getting up and then having to go through the settling process again. I don’t know why I’m reluctant to settle and write.
I suppose I’m afraid. I feel uncomfortable inside, a weight when I feel inside a desire to steer things when Daniel is here. Steer them to create more of that nice feeling before he goes. Knowing that steering has usually worked out with less than happy feelings, I feel fear that I will act uncomfortable and create discomfort and an atmosphere that is uncomfortable.
But now I’m thinking about my dream, the one of the river in particular. As I told Sharon last night, one of the reasons I quit kayaking was that I felt I couldn’t trust myself to not get paralyzed with fear and thus make a bad decision. Sharon is proposing that I can trust that I am being taken care of and the good news is I don’t HAVE to be so alert for openings and afraid I’m going to miss them.
But it’s tricky, because I can see myself on a path to that becoming a part of Old Pattern that’s shutting down this new way of being. I feel like I’m wavering on the crux of the pattern emerging and a strong compelling voice that wants me to know that I can screw it up by being afraid, get stuck to feelings of Old Pattern again. And stay stuck…I see how the fear is a part of that Pattern—and I can begin to discern that there are signs when it’s coming…perhaps to the extent I can also be part of Ground as opposed to totally Figure I have some advance warning of a force magnetizing me toward the …old way.
That’s peculiar how in some ways I get this and then in some ways I don’t. I guess it just makes sense to me for the first time how realization of the possibility of bad feelings in the Environment could cause me to split from it (in a de facto sort of way) and locate full responsibility for all feelings into myself and feel it is my duty to change them for everyone
I might as well admit that the happiness I have at the anticipation of Daniel coming is part of what triggers the currents of tension running through me—the fear that I will do something wrong—the fear that my Fear of doing something wrong will make me do something wrong. Will make an uncomfortable atmosphere between us and I’ll be responsible for having created it and responsible for fixing it. I'm afraid my fear of doing something wrong will render me powerless to fix it.
Later
So Daniel just left. And the job’s still not finished so he’s got probably one more trip left. Gee, he’s a nice guy.
My guess is that he’s a born-again Christian. It’s probably unlikely that he’s of the metaphysical stripe…though he seems to respond to things from a place of depth (and to appreciate the humor that is there)…so maybe his Christianity is the true kind, that is a gateway to the divine in himself. I feel like my gateway to the divine in my self is a far broader interpretation of Christianity than I think most mainstream Christians are comfortable with; but the themes are there—loss, cut off from God, sacrifice, redemption, heroic journey. It’s there in Christianity and it seems to be there in the way that’s called me all my life. Some Christians recognize there are many paths to deep inner communion with God. I think most Christians, at least in my experience growing up that I encountered, do not see Christianity as a doorway at all, but an end in itself. They’ve gotten enamored of the trappings, the rules, the rituals and so it is an imposition from the outside-in (and all that implies about will-power and obedience). A certain part of the person has to die in order to live like that.
He just seems to respond with delight when our eyes meet talking. He seems happy talking to me too.
It’s just unmistakable that I like the way I feel after I’ve seen him. It gives me pleasure to look back on it. Perhaps I’m experiencing these feelings as being in the Ground (and not crammed up inside of Figure, causing anxiety). It’s kind of nice to think that if these feelings are in Ground, then it’s not just me—that it’s in the Ground *between* us. And that’s kind of neat to acknowledge it. It’s in the Ground between us.
It’s also sweet to have it feel so uncomplicated, this happiness. It’s been special and unexpected, but I think it’s also something that doesn’t require anything…so I’ll be able to let go of it when the time comes.
It’s very funny what a difference it made, the quality of the time with Daniel today. I felt free of the second-guessing and the self-consciousness that comes from that. I felt what it was like to wait until I had an internal prompting telling me to do something before I’d act, and I think I had an experience of the difference.
I know that before seeing him today I was inclined to be embarrassed and afraid of being more embarrassed.
12/07
I flashed on something…about how happiness IS people’s best natural state. People who are happy, in that deep abiding sense inside, behave well I would be willing to bet.
So perhaps what I’ve been experiencing, especially yesterday and also today, is happiness that’s located in the Ground. It’s not necessarily located inside of me, or inside of Daniel, or even in the enjoyment of his presence (Presence). There is some temptation to locate it inside of him.
So anyway, this happiness seems like it should be the foundation from which humans move. Because the best behavior is inspired by it, and it’s like being held. Yes, lifted up. I feel lifted up, and I feel happy. That’s a lot, for me to write that down.
It certainly does reach into a sexual pulse, though. Or I experience Life Force as a heightened sexual awareness.
When I have no internal input coming in I try to fill it with some activity: I imagine a Voice inside and wonder if it’s God telling me what to do. Or substitute “True Self” for God. Every impulse (often prompted by anxiety). That’s what I was describing to Sharon—the realization that I feel jabbed inside about an action to take and I don’t know if it’s my Real Voice or not…and so I feel afraid to act on it and I feel afraid to not act. Afraid I’ll act too soon and fuck something up and miss an opportunity and afraid I’ll wait too long and fuck up and miss an opportunity.
The slightest direction toward falling has been enough to push me full-on into falling. And a good deal of my life has been occupied with anxiety over that. Fear of fear, anxiety of anxiety.
Something was going on that was nice. Period. And it was like there was an undercurrent when he first arrived of a bit of checking: did I guess right when you seemed like a friend? Is it still ok to not be guarded with you? It IS? Hooray! I think just that brought a certain ease, the eye contact we made and there was a smile behind that.
12/08
It seems the primary happiness has passed into memory, where it becomes available to second-guessing, self-doubt, a little distortion.
We had a nice encounter. It was generative, for whatever reason, which makes it easy for me to divert that energy into a sexual realm. He may not do that. He may not experience it as sexual at all, but as a manifestation of God in me, and what I was experiencing was God in him. That’s a way of saying it, is that feeling lighter, better, while talking to him is a direct result of his living his life as such to let God shine through. That’s why, I guess, I feel maybe it’s ‘wrong’ or something to go ahead and let it express for me sexually.
I guess what’s dangerous about letting my thoughts go full tilt with the sexual aspect of the energy between Daniel and me is that it might ‘spoil’ it. It’ll become tasteless and then I’ll feel restless and unhappy; sated when I don’t want to be. Stale; I’m afraid it will become stale if I allow images and fantasies through.
What I was experiencing was the afterglow experience of having been in his presence…it was like an afterglow. It’s not so much I was thinking about him in specifics, like what he’d said and what I’d said, but more like being in the influence of his field. And liking it. Just feeling positively influenced by his field.
Maybe he’s a person who is gifted that way and does it wherever he goes. Leaves behind a field that brings out the best in people.
I suppose one of the reasons I revisit this is because it’s reassurring: it helps reassure me that I didn’t imagine it, or make it up.
What I seem to be noticing is that there are many lights to shed on a same experience, and it’s very possible that while one may think she’s holding a bouquet of flowers in one light she may see the same as a handful of wilted weeds in another. Can that be true of anything, any experience, thought, or concept?
There seems to be a way that there’s something magic in the experience I’ve had with Daniel. And paying attention to staying with what I really wanted inside seemed to enhance that and lead to a nice experience for me for sure and possibly us both. With that sense of magic comes some sense of future magic. Again, I don’t know if that would be him specifically, or if he just represents it.
Oh man, it’s taking a long time to get settled and I’m still thinking I need a couple of other things which necessitates getting up and then having to go through the settling process again. I don’t know why I’m reluctant to settle and write.
I suppose I’m afraid. I feel uncomfortable inside, a weight when I feel inside a desire to steer things when Daniel is here. Steer them to create more of that nice feeling before he goes. Knowing that steering has usually worked out with less than happy feelings, I feel fear that I will act uncomfortable and create discomfort and an atmosphere that is uncomfortable.
But now I’m thinking about my dream, the one of the river in particular. As I told Sharon last night, one of the reasons I quit kayaking was that I felt I couldn’t trust myself to not get paralyzed with fear and thus make a bad decision. Sharon is proposing that I can trust that I am being taken care of and the good news is I don’t HAVE to be so alert for openings and afraid I’m going to miss them.
But it’s tricky, because I can see myself on a path to that becoming a part of Old Pattern that’s shutting down this new way of being. I feel like I’m wavering on the crux of the pattern emerging and a strong compelling voice that wants me to know that I can screw it up by being afraid, get stuck to feelings of Old Pattern again. And stay stuck…I see how the fear is a part of that Pattern—and I can begin to discern that there are signs when it’s coming…perhaps to the extent I can also be part of Ground as opposed to totally Figure I have some advance warning of a force magnetizing me toward the …old way.
That’s peculiar how in some ways I get this and then in some ways I don’t. I guess it just makes sense to me for the first time how realization of the possibility of bad feelings in the Environment could cause me to split from it (in a de facto sort of way) and locate full responsibility for all feelings into myself and feel it is my duty to change them for everyone
I might as well admit that the happiness I have at the anticipation of Daniel coming is part of what triggers the currents of tension running through me—the fear that I will do something wrong—the fear that my Fear of doing something wrong will make me do something wrong. Will make an uncomfortable atmosphere between us and I’ll be responsible for having created it and responsible for fixing it. I'm afraid my fear of doing something wrong will render me powerless to fix it.
Later
So Daniel just left. And the job’s still not finished so he’s got probably one more trip left. Gee, he’s a nice guy.
My guess is that he’s a born-again Christian. It’s probably unlikely that he’s of the metaphysical stripe…though he seems to respond to things from a place of depth (and to appreciate the humor that is there)…so maybe his Christianity is the true kind, that is a gateway to the divine in himself. I feel like my gateway to the divine in my self is a far broader interpretation of Christianity than I think most mainstream Christians are comfortable with; but the themes are there—loss, cut off from God, sacrifice, redemption, heroic journey. It’s there in Christianity and it seems to be there in the way that’s called me all my life. Some Christians recognize there are many paths to deep inner communion with God. I think most Christians, at least in my experience growing up that I encountered, do not see Christianity as a doorway at all, but an end in itself. They’ve gotten enamored of the trappings, the rules, the rituals and so it is an imposition from the outside-in (and all that implies about will-power and obedience). A certain part of the person has to die in order to live like that.
He just seems to respond with delight when our eyes meet talking. He seems happy talking to me too.
It’s just unmistakable that I like the way I feel after I’ve seen him. It gives me pleasure to look back on it. Perhaps I’m experiencing these feelings as being in the Ground (and not crammed up inside of Figure, causing anxiety). It’s kind of nice to think that if these feelings are in Ground, then it’s not just me—that it’s in the Ground *between* us. And that’s kind of neat to acknowledge it. It’s in the Ground between us.
It’s also sweet to have it feel so uncomplicated, this happiness. It’s been special and unexpected, but I think it’s also something that doesn’t require anything…so I’ll be able to let go of it when the time comes.
It’s very funny what a difference it made, the quality of the time with Daniel today. I felt free of the second-guessing and the self-consciousness that comes from that. I felt what it was like to wait until I had an internal prompting telling me to do something before I’d act, and I think I had an experience of the difference.
I know that before seeing him today I was inclined to be embarrassed and afraid of being more embarrassed.
12/07
I flashed on something…about how happiness IS people’s best natural state. People who are happy, in that deep abiding sense inside, behave well I would be willing to bet.
So perhaps what I’ve been experiencing, especially yesterday and also today, is happiness that’s located in the Ground. It’s not necessarily located inside of me, or inside of Daniel, or even in the enjoyment of his presence (Presence). There is some temptation to locate it inside of him.
So anyway, this happiness seems like it should be the foundation from which humans move. Because the best behavior is inspired by it, and it’s like being held. Yes, lifted up. I feel lifted up, and I feel happy. That’s a lot, for me to write that down.
It certainly does reach into a sexual pulse, though. Or I experience Life Force as a heightened sexual awareness.
When I have no internal input coming in I try to fill it with some activity: I imagine a Voice inside and wonder if it’s God telling me what to do. Or substitute “True Self” for God. Every impulse (often prompted by anxiety). That’s what I was describing to Sharon—the realization that I feel jabbed inside about an action to take and I don’t know if it’s my Real Voice or not…and so I feel afraid to act on it and I feel afraid to not act. Afraid I’ll act too soon and fuck something up and miss an opportunity and afraid I’ll wait too long and fuck up and miss an opportunity.
The slightest direction toward falling has been enough to push me full-on into falling. And a good deal of my life has been occupied with anxiety over that. Fear of fear, anxiety of anxiety.
Something was going on that was nice. Period. And it was like there was an undercurrent when he first arrived of a bit of checking: did I guess right when you seemed like a friend? Is it still ok to not be guarded with you? It IS? Hooray! I think just that brought a certain ease, the eye contact we made and there was a smile behind that.
12/08
It seems the primary happiness has passed into memory, where it becomes available to second-guessing, self-doubt, a little distortion.
We had a nice encounter. It was generative, for whatever reason, which makes it easy for me to divert that energy into a sexual realm. He may not do that. He may not experience it as sexual at all, but as a manifestation of God in me, and what I was experiencing was God in him. That’s a way of saying it, is that feeling lighter, better, while talking to him is a direct result of his living his life as such to let God shine through. That’s why, I guess, I feel maybe it’s ‘wrong’ or something to go ahead and let it express for me sexually.
I guess what’s dangerous about letting my thoughts go full tilt with the sexual aspect of the energy between Daniel and me is that it might ‘spoil’ it. It’ll become tasteless and then I’ll feel restless and unhappy; sated when I don’t want to be. Stale; I’m afraid it will become stale if I allow images and fantasies through.
What I was experiencing was the afterglow experience of having been in his presence…it was like an afterglow. It’s not so much I was thinking about him in specifics, like what he’d said and what I’d said, but more like being in the influence of his field. And liking it. Just feeling positively influenced by his field.
Maybe he’s a person who is gifted that way and does it wherever he goes. Leaves behind a field that brings out the best in people.
I suppose one of the reasons I revisit this is because it’s reassurring: it helps reassure me that I didn’t imagine it, or make it up.
What I seem to be noticing is that there are many lights to shed on a same experience, and it’s very possible that while one may think she’s holding a bouquet of flowers in one light she may see the same as a handful of wilted weeds in another. Can that be true of anything, any experience, thought, or concept?
There seems to be a way that there’s something magic in the experience I’ve had with Daniel. And paying attention to staying with what I really wanted inside seemed to enhance that and lead to a nice experience for me for sure and possibly us both. With that sense of magic comes some sense of future magic. Again, I don’t know if that would be him specifically, or if he just represents it.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Like Learning to Swing
I'll write a little further here while the back-up's going on.
I just moved into a new understanding of the concept of "figure/ground". I've been 'seeing' that theme a lot in my life in much more personal application than the old Gestaldt (?) illusion that appears to be a vase when you look at it one way, or the profiles of two faces nose to nose.
It's a strange day. I feel very restless, not quite able to settle down to anything yet unsure which is my best direction. I wonder if these feelings fit into 'ground' at all.
Anyway: new understanding of figure/ground. The water the fish swims in; the tip of the iceberg, the wind beneath my wings: figure/ground. The Ground hiding in plain sight.
As a child I attempted to cut myself off from the Ground, tightly squeezing myself into Figure. That meant that though I may have been protected from some of the dangers of the Ground, I also didn't have access to its pulse, its...I don't know what to call It. "Power" is a very inadequate word to describe It--I picture It as the movement of the waves a boat is floating on. Bob Schwartz, in "Winning Through Enlightenment" describes It as Context.
A consequence of trying to split away from the Ground is that I mistakenly attribute elements within Ground as being located inside of me. Trying to keep Ground out is futile; information leaks in in the form of feelings. Which I attribute wholly to me as their generator. If they are uncomfortable feelings I feel totally responsible for them and I fear that they might mean something bad about me. I see now that I can relieve myself of some of that responsibility now: for feelings that exist and for other people's feelings.
I see that being cut off from Ground has meant that I haven't been able to operate out of a whole Self. I've been like a child learning to swing, pumping furiously and going nowhere...because I haven't yet learned the part about letting go of effort, or at least excess effort, in order to work in harmony with the forces that make swinging possible. A certain amount of allowing in 'emptiness' and trust is required to swing oneself.
As a person who has always tended toward excessive effort, I am trying to let my nervous system tolerate some emptiness as I try to learn the cues that will enable Us to work together.
I just moved into a new understanding of the concept of "figure/ground". I've been 'seeing' that theme a lot in my life in much more personal application than the old Gestaldt (?) illusion that appears to be a vase when you look at it one way, or the profiles of two faces nose to nose.
It's a strange day. I feel very restless, not quite able to settle down to anything yet unsure which is my best direction. I wonder if these feelings fit into 'ground' at all.
Anyway: new understanding of figure/ground. The water the fish swims in; the tip of the iceberg, the wind beneath my wings: figure/ground. The Ground hiding in plain sight.
As a child I attempted to cut myself off from the Ground, tightly squeezing myself into Figure. That meant that though I may have been protected from some of the dangers of the Ground, I also didn't have access to its pulse, its...I don't know what to call It. "Power" is a very inadequate word to describe It--I picture It as the movement of the waves a boat is floating on. Bob Schwartz, in "Winning Through Enlightenment" describes It as Context.
A consequence of trying to split away from the Ground is that I mistakenly attribute elements within Ground as being located inside of me. Trying to keep Ground out is futile; information leaks in in the form of feelings. Which I attribute wholly to me as their generator. If they are uncomfortable feelings I feel totally responsible for them and I fear that they might mean something bad about me. I see now that I can relieve myself of some of that responsibility now: for feelings that exist and for other people's feelings.
I see that being cut off from Ground has meant that I haven't been able to operate out of a whole Self. I've been like a child learning to swing, pumping furiously and going nowhere...because I haven't yet learned the part about letting go of effort, or at least excess effort, in order to work in harmony with the forces that make swinging possible. A certain amount of allowing in 'emptiness' and trust is required to swing oneself.
As a person who has always tended toward excessive effort, I am trying to let my nervous system tolerate some emptiness as I try to learn the cues that will enable Us to work together.
hung mac
About 1/2 an hour ago I was looking forward to sitting down to explore some more that happy feeling that I feel in the presence of the door man. It was leading me to some questions about the nature of simple and spontaneous happiness like that...what it would have meant when I was younger; it changes my perception of the scope of happiness. Plus, writing has been a way to wring a little last juice from an experience--to experience the last little bit of life in it before it becomes a *memory* of a feeling.
However my Mac is hung up on a blue screen with a mouse present and movable, but it will not boot past that. I'd done a software update installation that Apple's been offering me forever; now I read via google that some people have had the same trouble with the security update download. And it doesn't look like it resolved easily. It seems it may be way beyond my technical skills, and level of patience to do the digging to improve my technical skills. I'm trying the first line of defense: reboot. And so the power is off and I'm scared to go turn it back on again.
If this has crashed I lose my e-mails, I think, since I couldn't figure out a way to get the external hard drive to copy them. Fortunately this time my documents are backed up to about a week ago, so I just (JUST!) lose this week's writing. If I've done the back-up right.
Well, it looks like first-line-of-defense worked for me. I feel so relieved.
Note to self:
1) get more familiarized with external hard drive
2) find out about 'archive install'
3) back up more often (go back up NOW)
However my Mac is hung up on a blue screen with a mouse present and movable, but it will not boot past that. I'd done a software update installation that Apple's been offering me forever; now I read via google that some people have had the same trouble with the security update download. And it doesn't look like it resolved easily. It seems it may be way beyond my technical skills, and level of patience to do the digging to improve my technical skills. I'm trying the first line of defense: reboot. And so the power is off and I'm scared to go turn it back on again.
If this has crashed I lose my e-mails, I think, since I couldn't figure out a way to get the external hard drive to copy them. Fortunately this time my documents are backed up to about a week ago, so I just (JUST!) lose this week's writing. If I've done the back-up right.
Well, it looks like first-line-of-defense worked for me. I feel so relieved.
Note to self:
1) get more familiarized with external hard drive
2) find out about 'archive install'
3) back up more often (go back up NOW)
Thursday, December 6, 2007
An infatuation
While knowing it's completely inappropriate to act on (but I still nurture it in my private thoughts), I've had a crush of sorts with the door guy. I feel foolish and silly saying it; but I guess it can't be that foolish considering the facts: I feel pleasure in his company. I'm reminded of something Jeff said to me once: "You en-lighten me. You make me feel lighter, better." That's how I've felt. Lighter and better, and it's a distinct contrast with how I usually feel. So I take notice.
It's like that fox (I think) in the Little Prince who allows the boy to tame him. In describing for the boy the process of taming, he walked through the stages of (1) presence, then (2) looking forward to presence, then (3) becoming so eager for presence that when a time is coming that's associated with the presence you get so excited you can't contain yourself and run around the room while waiting for the arrival. That's what it's been like with this man, and like I said, it seems worthy of considering.
I do feel warmed by the clues that he likes me too. It's either that, or he is naturally a person that puts people at their ease and they find it pleasant to be around him.
I'm sorry that today is the last day he'll be working on our door because I've come to associate these feelings with his presence or anticipation of his presence. So it seems that his leaving may take them...
It's been nice to feel happy and buoyed up by potential for a while.
That seems enough for now.
It's like that fox (I think) in the Little Prince who allows the boy to tame him. In describing for the boy the process of taming, he walked through the stages of (1) presence, then (2) looking forward to presence, then (3) becoming so eager for presence that when a time is coming that's associated with the presence you get so excited you can't contain yourself and run around the room while waiting for the arrival. That's what it's been like with this man, and like I said, it seems worthy of considering.
I do feel warmed by the clues that he likes me too. It's either that, or he is naturally a person that puts people at their ease and they find it pleasant to be around him.
I'm sorry that today is the last day he'll be working on our door because I've come to associate these feelings with his presence or anticipation of his presence. So it seems that his leaving may take them...
It's been nice to feel happy and buoyed up by potential for a while.
That seems enough for now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)