Long Division

How does one separate something that has taken years to build? It could have taken 2 years, or 20, but each day you added bricks and build a foundation, walls, windows… it develops into a fortress to protect you from the world. This fortress is supposed to be impenetrable. It shields all the inhabitants inside. So how, and where, does one even start to take it down? Do you burn the drawbridge? Trebuchet the shit out of the exterior? It’s hard to know, I guess. Circumstances often dictate the destruction of your fort.

But what do you do if you’re not mad, but have simply decided that this fort is shit, and you don’t want to live there anymore? Do you attempt to keep the status quo until arrangements change? Do you still burn the drawbridge and trebuchet the exterior? What about a volatile situation? What then? When inside the fortress is nothing but pure chaos, and there’s fires everywhere? How does one process getting everyone to safety? What does safety even look like, when you’re bed is in flames? Are there really any survivors? Nobody escapes totally unscathed, right?

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And there’s the long division. Strangely enough, if you never unpack, it’s easier to move. But now, we must sift through every. single. thing. to determine what belongs to whom, or who gets it in the dividing process. Then, there’s the others in the fortress… what becomes of them? The friends? You know everyone chooses sides, whether or not they consciously chose a side. Even family chooses sides, despite best efforts. It’s like we drew a line, and everyone decides which side they’ll forever stand on.

What I’ve determined is the worst of all, is the feeling of sudden emptiness. Loneliness. You once had a sounding board to share in your trials and triumphs with. Now, there’s friends or family, but it’s not the same. I want to share my joys and sorrows with someone who is in the fortress WITH me. We are fighting on the same side, in the same battles. People outside the fort, they just can’t appreciate the inner workings of your brain and heart, without first having to explain yourself. That is fucking exhausting. Constantly going over the same stuff, all the time. I just want to have my heart safely in the hands of someone I don’t have to “preface” with. New is positively exciting. Electric. But old, it’s comforting, familiar. That’s not to say I want a damn thing to do with this decaying rubble, but there’s something to be said for the familiar.

My heart aches for what it doesn’t have. My mind longs for a simple life. My intuition knows that this has expired and that it’s no longer home for me. Now what do I do with myself?

 

Best laid plans

Most of us travel through our lives planning most things, like education, career, what’s for dinner. Yet, at the same time, life happens to us. There is a multitude of things that happen that we simply cannot control, and for those who follow the Buddhist path- trying to control these things brings about much of our daily suffering. 

I feel as though most of the last several years has really just been a series of my best laid plans getting obliterated by life. For instance, we sold our house. Seems easy enough, right? Up until 3 days before we were to close, there was seemingly no chance the deal was happening. We had stopped packing, nothing was ready. Then all of a sudden the investment group that was buying it came through and we had 10 days to vacate so they could begin renovating. We had nowhere to go, nothing was packed. I work and my husband cares for our new baby, and we had 10 days. 

Needless to say, it’s been nothing but upheaval, chaos, uncertainty and anxiety. We still haven’t closed on another house, and every day it seems the financing is in jeopardy. I feel like I’m existing in a suspended state of panic all the time. 

Yes, I’m fully aware that this is a first world problem, buying and selling real estate, but that doesn’t negate the real stress that we are experiencing. I’ve tried to let it roll off my back, made the conscious effort to reframe the situation in a positive light, but the only things that keep me from curling up in a ball of paralyzing fear are my husband and daughter. I know that I’m the only one working and they both need me more than ever. 

We will get through these struggles, because we don’t really have a choice. For my sanity, and all of our health and safety, if the plan doesn’t work, I mush continually change the plan until it does. Trust me, nothing about this is ideal, but we have to make choices and sacrifices to survive. 

Unfortunately, it’s been this way for me since I can remember and I wonder if this truly IS the human experience. Is this all there is? Constantly juggling the elements of our lives in hopes that the thing we drop isn’t that important? 

Of course, my life doesn’t occur in a vacuum. There’s billions of others struggling with their lives too. Many people have many sufferings and my heart truly aches for them. People who have no homes, their lives are affected by violence, who cannot make ends meet, and more. I have experienced many troubles in my life, but I am still absolutely blessed. 

Because I know suffering, loss, heartbreak, and tragedy I’ve decided this holiday season to give back and pay it forward. Friends and family of mind are banding together to donate time, warm clothes, food and more to those in need. I am tired of living a life of fear and loss. I am starting to live with hope and gratitude, so much so that I’m willing to share my limited resources with people who have less. 

I wish you all a happy holiday season. Stay tuned for my ‘year in review’ coming soon. Thank you so much for your support this year. 

The Holiday Happiness Struggle

Hello dear readers,

I hope this belated post finds you all doing well. I am generally good, but life has been rather unexpected as of late, hence the delay in posting yet again.

Today’s blog is mainly about the holiday slump, but other fun stuff will be peppered in there too (bad pun, I know).

As we sort of steamroll into the end of the year it dawned on me a couple of things: 1) thanksgiving (for the Americans, at least) is next week. ALREADY. And 2) quite truthfully, as some readers know from previous posts, I hate this time of year. Now, before you stop reading and cast me off forever for being a Grinch, hear me out.

On one hand, the holidays are a magical time of year for togetherness, love, altruism and selfless giving. I am TOTALLY down for those qualities. However, the dark side of the holidays is where I’m lost and I hate it. Selfishness, greed, consumerism, obligation, pressure, expectation, depression, and repression are all too common and as I get older, maybe it gets easier to spot or maybe it’s just getting worse… I’m not sure. But the bottom line is that I have no patience for it and it makes me sad and angry. That is not to say that there aren’t bright spots, because there are, but good grief… People literally killing one another for a tv is just pure madness to me.

The holidays are also used as a dividing tactic, in my opinion. Families can’t be together because one member isn’t welcome, so they go somewhere else. Or the meals the celebrations are inevitably surrounding aren’t inclusive to everyone either. Such as, I’m a vegan and when I spend a holiday with my extended family, I have to eat beforehand. There will surely be a veggie tray and some soup my grandmother insists I try because I can just pick out the chicken… Mashed potatoes, but we used skim milk… what do you mean it’s not vegan?

I know they mean well, but I’m always the outsider. Even growing up I was the outsider, mainly because I was outspoken when it probably wasn’t a good idea to be and way too smart for my own good. Not much has changed. Strangely, my friend’s, boyfriend’s and now my husband’s families have always been more inclusive to me than my own family. I guess that’s why I find myself ‘collecting the strays’ ever since high school. People who have crappy families, no families or whatever their situation, they spend holidays with me. I think they need it as much as I do, that feeling of togetherness.

But as I said, I struggle during the holiday stampede and endless Xmas music to find my bliss and truly just can’t wait for the craziness to be over. I’m not sure about in other cities, but in this one, people. get. crazy. during the holidays. They get pushier, shovier, and shorter tempered in their rush to do the next thing. The universe blessed Phoenix in that it very rarely snows here, because truly I don’t think I could handle the people, snow, and the people handling snow. It would likely cause the end of the world. Just saying.

I just recently took a fundraising position for a nonprofit organization and after my first day of field training, at a mall kiosk, I’m not only doubting my effectiveness in this position but also doubting humanity. Generally speaking, I’m expected to be a barker at people walking by. This is much harder than I give those mall guys credit for. At least the makeup or jewelry people have a product to sell. We are ‘selling’ an idea. We have to tap into what we think people will care about: kids, families, disasters, violence… We have to poke the hot button. And in a split second. I am just not that smooth. I’ve never done sales before. I’m an office worker or manual labor. Standing in the middle of a shopping mall trying to hustle? Damn hard and way out of my comfort zone. I’m going to try and stick it out to see if I make improvements, but the outlook is bleak.

I’m already finding myself wishing it were January.

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