Growing Up

Last night was interesting...

I got brilliant earlier in the day and decided I'd make friends with the inner abyss and that's what I would be for Hallowe'en. So, I dressed all in black, blackened my hair, and taped the words "the abyss" over my chest....
Wore that, dropped Kat off with her dad for hallowe'en and found myself with 3 hrs or so to kill before party time....

I came home....wallowed in the abyss for a while. And then went to change. I recalled that the "wedded one" had asked if I'd be a gypsy with her...
So...out came the garb, the veils, the fancy skirts, and the dangles.....

Wrapping myself in my veils felt very much like coming home....putting my makeup on in the mirror, felt...real, and present.... THIS is the way I'm comfortable. I can hold this, wear this, be this... It's a light in the abyss, that I'd forgotten was there....

Off I went...feeling a tad odd, wearing what for me was often an SCA costume to a party where lots of those would be there.... I've not been to an event in years....I guess for me that really does make it a costume.... It also fels like being home...

I'd indulged a bit before I got there....and the paranoia and pleasant flow of the thoughts in my mind... *I so love the insight I get when I've indulged*...was distracting and intensified my focus all at the same time...

Epiphanies? People are not real to me until I've had an experience of bonding with them, a good conversation, a touch... I can see them over and over at the same places, and not recall their name. I do not talk to many people. I wandered to the party, seeing familiar faces and being unable to focus on them, as my mind raced into new insights and awarenesses...
I indulged in memories of me when I could manage these events, be open and responsive and connect.... I indulged in self-pity, frustration and challenge.

I faced an energy that wanted to "pull your heart out of your back and wipe it off from all the darkness hiding it right now." Faced, asked...and ran. It was a bittersweet interaction, in that I was willing to admit what I wanted, but could not handle the offer to recieve it. I took what I could savour of the energy, the good will, and wide open LOVE...that reminded me of Spirit, and Goddess and warm moonlit nights in wide open spaces.... and I ran.


All in all, an interesting evening. I started my day with a bath...unusual for me...but healing, calming and nurturing... Little things are getting done, in 15 min increments, it's about all I can do right now... I had breakfast, am pondering lunch... There's a fellow likely to touch base later in the day, and I have an open invite to Cambridge to hang with ladies from work with a glass or two of wine.

Things I considered & didn't do:

- slide into the hot tub before anyone else remembered it was there
- STAY, crash there...
- Bring home the energy and feed what I need

None of t hese would have been bad things...but all would have involved more ...self-assurance than I have right now. I entertained them, weighed the risks.... and didn't do. Maybe next time.

So I was planning on AJS last night but it was a miserable day, so I watched Dexter and crashed.

Today I woke feeling...'rested'. Got the Neon into my name, hung out with friends, collected...stuff.

A nap was had.

Now I'm looking at going to AJS. I'd forgotten how used to doing things with people I've become. I'm actually fishing to get someone to go with me... What's that about? I've never had a hard time going out on my own. Yet I'm finding myself nervous.
Part of that could be because I had plans to spend time with lovers this weekend, and it's not happening. I'm feeling lonely, I admit it. But the nervous...that's just odd.


Weird.

ACOA (Adult Children of Alcohoics) live in a constant stated of duality. Warring inside between their innate sense of unworthiness (unworthy of love, emotional caring, and trust that they were denied in the chaos of their chilldhood) and their innate sense of entitlement. How does one feel unworthy and entitled at the same time...>VERY CHAOTICALLY.

Welcome to the space that is my head.

In one instant, I am feeling a sense that person A should WANT to at least remember my name, because... (pick a reason)....this sense of outrage that they DON"T want to remember my name (in my perception) is accompanied by the sense that I'm NOT worthy of their attention because....(pick a reason)

Seriously. Both these thoughts wage war on each other until one beats the other into submission, briefly, then they fight again on and on and on.


All rational thought aside, there's emotions that accompany this war. From anger and outrage, to abandonment and genuine hurt.

I'm good at the thoughts, I recognize them well when I take the time to slow everything down and hear them....it's the emotions that I'm not so good at. You were only ever allowed to be angry in my house. It's really the only emotion I know well.

My CBT says I need to work on the emotional part, but where will I ever find the bandwidth to deal with my own emotional stuff when I'm so caught up in the work that I do. I come home, emotionally drained and dry. Where is there room in that for my own work. I risk crossing boundaries, sharing too much, empathizing with my clients and becoming enmeshed. It's not healthy. I see it.
How do I manage it.? Perhaps that is where the CBT will have to help me.

I'm up.
I'm anxious.

I am supposed to be at a house to photograph it at 8:30.

I don't want to go. I want to crawl back into bed.

I want to talk to the EAP person...This is becoming a priority...quickly.