Dead For A Day

When i was younger I remember writing a lot of poetry to help cope with different things I was going through growing up. In one particular bad phase of life I wrote the beginning of a poem that went something like this:

"Sometimes I wonder

What it'd be like to die

To lay in a casket

And watch everyone cry

Sometimes I wonder

Who would be there

Who would pay their respects

Who really would care....."

I never wrote anything beyond that... I could never finish it

Yesterday, I lost one of my best friends

her husband lost his wife

her daughters lost their mom

and everyone she's touched has lost a light...

to suicide.

For as long as i've known her, She's been depressed. She'd been so sick for so long... none of us really took her threats seriously anymore- All we could do was listen, tell her everything was going to be alright and help her pull through it. None of us ever thought she'd be gone.

But she is.

She gave up.

After the initial shock wore off and the facebook posts began flowing in, all I could think was "I wish she could see this!!!"

For so long she felt unloved, unappreciated and completely alone. That no one acknowledged her efforts and, at the end of the day, that no one cared.

Then i thought- what a great, but completely fucked up, suicidal ideation treatment!

What if, for just one day, we were dead to the world? That rumor had it we were gone... That Our friends and our family- close and long lost- all came out of the woodwork and expressed their truest; deepest feelings? Sharing stories of ways we inspired them, ways we touched their lives, things they always admired, memories they'll always cherish.

How sad it is to think we hold onto these thoughts and  keep them to ourselves! How many unnecessarily lost lives may be saved if they knew the things we never say? What if all it took was that single message- that said, "i appreciate you, my life is forever changed/blessed/better because of you... and even if we never speak again... I'll always care about you."?

So as everyone begins making your New Years resolutions that you'll statistically fail miserably in the next 6 weeks... take a good look at your friends lists. Take 2 minutes to say a quick hello, share a thought, a memory or simply something you appreciate or admire about that person.... You never know what they're feeling... whats going on in their lives... or if the next morning they'll be gone.

Cherish life.

Happy New Year Everyone!

The UniGodiVerse

As most of you know, i've been struggling with 'faith' lately. Or- the belief in God in general. My whole life i questioned religion, never God- until I actually started reading the Bible (KJV- cover to cover.)

Its been an interesting adventure setting sail with no anchor to speak of. Opening my mind to other possibilites- learning from friends who have very different beliefs.

An interesting thought was posted on my facebook page recently with the question:

"What if you found out that the sun that warms us is the heart of a being... the planets were its organs... and we are the cells that make it possible?"

While sitting in church this last sunday I began to expound on this thought...

Science has proven that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Religion believes that our foundation- our very existence and purpose for life is for and by Jesus Christ- the son.

What if they were one and the same? If somewhere along the lines of translation someone changed the U to an O and personified the Sun of God to be the Son of God? That "God" itself/himself/herself really was someones interpretation of the universe- a way to mindfully grasp the sheer magnitude of something far too great to understand. Imagining a God as a human being such as ourselves is far easier to wrap our heads around than attempting to comprehend an all powerful; unforseen energy that created us from nothing with such biological perfection to intertwine us with everything around us for survival.

What if faith, the laws of attraction, the force, the energy we feel are really just our own individual ways of connecting with the Uni-God-iverse?

While sitting in church pondering these thoughts on Sunday, the teacher used very interesting wording in her lesson. she said, "Some people connect to their God through prayer, personally I connect to my God through song." It struck me that here we were as a congregation- all there for the 'same' purpose- purportedly believing in the same thing- yet we each connect to "our God" in different ways. Why is it that we as a religion all have our own God- not just connecting to "God"?

The scriptures, that so many people base their beliefs on, are really just compilations of journals and stories written by other people based on their own interpretation of experiences- a history book from one person's point of view as they lived it; as they saw it.. Think about how a simple translational mistake like writing a U as an O completely changes the way we perceive it today!

What if God really is just a personified explanation of the Universe?

What if we, as individuals, are all right? That we are all discovering and holding different pieces of the same puzzle...The Atheists and the Theists, Science and religion... both are simply looking at the same thing with different eyes.

Just as with science and research- some people are further along in their quest for knowledge than others.

Some people are satisfied with the simple answer: the one that shows ignorance is bliss- the answer that makes something as astronomical as a Universal coincidence, vibrating at a specific level and creating a perfect molecular harmony for us to evolve and survive as living beings, too complex to grasp- so they personify it as a human-shaped "God" and leave it at that.

Others want to understand more. This is how science and technology have evolved into what it is today- if we were all satisfied with the simple answer we's still be afraid of falling off the end of the earth, we wouldn't have electricity or telephones or any of the first world problems we enjoy, we would all just be content hunting and gathering in mud huts and loin clothes! So some people started with a foundational knowledge of a God, built on the foundations and moved on to search for higher knowledge and meaning.

Both groups however recognize that there is a force greater than us- that in the larger view- we are so indispensably small and insignificant. We're just the cells pumping the blood, delivering nutrients, fighting infection, carrying and oxygen to something/for something far greater than we'll ever be and more complicated for us to understand.

So God-Allah-Buddha-Jesus-Darwin! Can't we all just get along?! ;)

Masterpiece

The girl you see today is just a rough draft of the masterpiece to come. A portion, a version of the magnificent finished product that has yet to enter this world.

We are all products of our environment... Of our upbringing. Our families play a vital role in defining those boundaries and characteristics. Most often we are content in this arena- happy in the class we are raised in. Rarely however, one or two will want more.

Moving up from a lower class is similar to traveling to a new country. Social norms and appropriate boundaries all have different definitions. The things you are comfortable with; the things you are used to; the things in your family and way of life that would be viewed as innocent and probably funny are ultimately insulting and regarded as distasteful as you navigate newer surroundings.

It's easy to unintentionally offend someone when you allow your white trash upbringing to show through as you move forward without a mask. Those who love you will stand by your side... Encouraging you to learn and grow. The rest will abandon you with your efforts, forever looking down on you; condescendingly as the pitiful embarrassment you are.

just because you're holding the flash light and helping me to navigate unfamiliar territory doesn't mean you're changing me. Doesn't mean you're trying to turn me into someone I'm not... On the contrary. You're helping to mold me. Helping to shape and nurture and grow me into the full potential that's buried underneath the landfill.

Flowers will grow through cracks in the concrete... Trees will bend around obstacles in their way to reach the sun. Just because the road is hard and the path seems impossible doesn't mean that The journey is a lost cause. It doesn't mean Im doomed to remain unworthy or low class... Im still here...Allowing each artists hands to make their mark... To add their skill and experience to the page. I'm still a masterpiece... Just waiting for the world to realize the train wreck was always a beautiful work of art.

Loneliness

It's a lonely little world I live in. No wonder im so unhappy. I have no friends. At home I'm seen as incompetent. My son has no boundaries & no respect. I can't talk to my grandparents about anything.. At work, I'm alone in a gray cubicle. Very little social interaction- no human connection- no friends... Just a job I don't care to do, in a place I don't care to be, with a paycheck far less than I'm worth. I have to give so much effort to complete the tasks that I do. It's taking 5x the effort for 1/2 the production.... I'm not happy. I'm alone at home, I'm alone at work, I'm alone outside of both of those places and I'm watching myself shut down. Not caring. Not wanting to work. Getting fat. Not caring about that either. Reflecting back on last summer.. When I was happy. When I was productive. When I had everything I wanted- or at least I wanted to believe I did. When the only thing missing was my one more child... I had a job I loved- that paid well, I had a family, I had a best friend to come home & talk to every night- that loved me for me, I had friends outside of JayDe's friends. I had my own group of people that I could interact with daily. Even if my husband was emotionally checked out... I- in my own little world- was happy. The only thing missing for me was my last baby.

Now it's all I can do but look at my 'friends' on Facebook... All of them on their 3rd child... Married, owning homes, pushing the daily grind of work, school, mom, wife etc and I'm jealous. Wishing I had what they did. Hating the current state of my life and knowing the miserable cycle I'm on is spiraling down instead of moving forward.. Knowing the only way off is to get out. Throw myself to the wolves. I'm losing faith in myself.

Strange thing is, is that I don't feel depressed. I'm not sad. I'm not hopeless. Discouraged maybe. Frustrated, absolutely. Just don't really care. Moving from hating it so much that I'm working as hard as I can to get out to just hating it and accepting that the good ole days are gone. But refusing to let myself give up & completely resolve to being fat, broke & alone.

Just unsure where I'm going to land when I throw myself off of the ride....

Rejection

Rejection. It's a different emotion. Can be taken out of context, viewed from the wrong perception... Stemming from insecurity. I don't know why it bothers me so badly that after giving and fighting and loving and trying with everything I had to keep my family together and make my marriage work, after finally standing up for myself & jaiden and saying no more, that everyone has turned their backs on me. I'm the bad guy. And all I did was give 150% to everyone else... Nothing to myself. Loneliness is terrible. Knowing that all of your friends really are his- and always will be. Even though they are around & say 'hey' occasionally... I'll always just be "the ex". Like its some kind of disease. Being shunned for standing up for myself after years of putting him and our son first. I wonder if they know I can see the pity in their eyes when they look at me.

It's crazy how the truly ruthless bitches always come out on top. The manipulative whores that make everyone else's lives hell, ultimately retain control. Laura constantly dangled Dylan in front of Becky, was always malicious & only thinking about herself. I simply stated that jaiden wanted to spend time with her and i was frustrated that he was never included. Yet here we are- I'm the bad guy. His parents have disowned jaiden and I while adopting her son as their own grandchild. They've long since forgotten about me and undoubtedly adore Shaina.

Laura couldn't stand me because she couldn't control me & I stopped allowing her to control JayDe. I wouldn't allow her to walk all over my family. But you bet your ass she loves shaina. They have the same personality traits.

I think his grandmothers comment stung the worst. She commented on a picture of the 2 of them and said "your girlfriend is so pretty, I'm so proud of you!" proud of what? The fact that he abandoned his "not pretty"; hard working wife and child to go party, do drugs and be single? Proud that he neglected his responsibilities as a father and commitments as a husband? Proud that he is now dating an underage princess he can party with that has never had to work for anything?

Even his friends that stood by me in the beginning... Inviting jaiden and I places... Have stopped. They invite JayDe and Shaina instead. It's so ridiculous that I almost feel betrayed by them for it. But it's like accepting her and dropping me, validates what he did and that it's ok. They're his friends! Of course they are going to stick by him- whether they agree with his actions or not!! I wouldn't expect any less!!

I'm just the ex.

Unfriended by Shaina on Facebook. Still blocked by him as well. Says a lot more than words ever could.. Makes me wonder who he doesn't want knowing how good of friends we still are. Makes me wonder how badly he trashed me for ending the marriage I fought for.

It's a lonely world; rejection.

Underneath It All

Its amazing to me how your wants in life change... 

Growing up I was the nerdy girl that everyone made fun of. I was never in the popular crowd...The boys were always making jokes like "Reesa is pretty, pretty damn ugly" (thank you 5th grade first crush). The only thing I wanted in life was to grow up to be absolutely gorgeous. To be the Disney princess. To be the girl that walked through the door and made the whole room go silent. And if we're being honest, I couldn't wait to go on Jenny Jones and show all of those mean boys "Look at me now"!

What I wasn't aware of, however, is really how much of a burden physical attractiveness can be. I didn't realize that along with silencing a room, your every move is analyzed. Every breath of air you make in the wrong direction is scrutinized. Everyone is watching the things that you are doing and putting you down in a completely different way. Style of dress is never appropriate enough (its either too tight, too baggy, too frumpy, too bright, too low, too high, etc). When you try to tweak one quality slightly to meet everyones standards, there is a whole separate group ready and waiting to put you down. Sad how the insecurities of others are manifested through hate.

It also comes with the blessing of allowing you to appear completely superficial and totally dense. Like underneath the physical mask, there couldn't possibly be anything worthwhile to explore. Apparently when you're physically attractive, the only thing you're good for is meaningless sex or the late night booty call. You're the next conquest the guys want to brag about later on with their buddies. A pretty girl couldn't possibly have any real feelings or any real substance about her. Fucked and chucked.

After finally embracing and loving the person I am inside, and accepting the person I am outside, I apparently became an extremely intimidating person to be around. God forbid you have a smart; pretty girl that also happens to be really laid back, drama free and down to earth. It isn't possible to be beautiful and bad ass right? Wrong! Except now I find that most wont take the time to look past the pretty face. Most wont make an effort to discover who I am and what i'm about.

I finally learned to shed the mask... to stop hiding who I was, to stop trying to change myself to fit in. I learned how to simply be me 100% of the time. To stop caring what others thought- to allow myself to be completely real with myself and others every day.

So now the question is... how do i put the physical aspect on the back burner and stand out for the girl I am inside. the girl with so much more to offer...

Funny how my whole life all i wanted to be was beautiful... and now all i want to be is invisibly average.