Weaving a stronger Me

To subsist, to exist or to live life as much as is possible ? 

(I'm reposting this because it echoes my recent post and reminds me that I must keep moving from the path, I have done it before and should keep it in mind not to fall into pattern)

Do I decide or do I let it choose me? 
It's about putting as much into it and getting the best out of it. And it appears so, I have done more than my fair share. And while I keep thinking, isn't that what marriage is? You give it your all.
So now it's time to take it back. Does it work that way?

I can make ends meet.  I'm advised, it's not about greed. It's about satisfaction and demanding your all that you are entitled to.
She makes a good case for me and reminds me 'very diplomatically' that I'm being a shmuck by giving in and thinking that I should settle for less.

It's time to assert.OK. So I'm following her advise and I'm thinking, why do I keep falling back on this pattern.
I have to stop this, I have to stop serving myself short.

I've learnt a few things, 
- Motherhood has it's price and it's compensations and there's no haggling.
- hope and trust can be a weakness each, combined it puts you in a coma.
- courage is something you work at but fear is something that sleeps in you always.
- and that being nice does not get you a good night's sleep.

If life is about balance how are we ever going to find it, if we don't know where the middle is.  

(reposting June15 2011)

Moderating my nature

In July 2009, I started my first post, I look at it now as the warm up to the most difficult phase in my life.

This blog helped me along the way, I see that. Hindsight etc etc.

When I read back there are times I don't recognise that me. When I think back I don't believe that was me (mild meek me) doing what I had to do.

I am learning to distinquish what is nature in me and what was nurtured by my hectic advertising life. Learning to unlearn is not so easy because whatever it is, you still have to make time to unlearn. Learning to breath slowly is not as easy as it seems when you think you have left the stressful job behind.

An example - I started to cook and then it became like a ritual with a schedule which I forced on myself.  I had reasons to do it sure, I do enjoy it but it was that schedule and in my mind it became a "should do".  So now I have to stop that way of thinking or I would not be able to relax into a comfortable motion of life.

 

Suddenly I find I don't have enough time to rest because I want to do cooking or cardcrafting or walk the dog ot marketing or catch my favourite TV programme (even though I can record it). I am not there yet, at a point of doing things comfortably in my time and being relaxed in my head. Am I making sense ?

When I was working- that sucked all the time and energy, I was on a constant treadmill, and life outside was a secondary priority. So that's the way my nature goes, I need to engage my head and move out of the trench I appear to dig deeper the more time I spend on it.

Remaking my daily routine.

I worked for years and years until I decided(after some math)  I could take a break in Oct last year. I decided I was going to find my feet again and learn to breathe slowly, learn to breathe while I ate and just catch up on sleep(if I could sleep). It was a risk but health was a priority I had to consider. And it was time taking into account the many things that had happened already in the job. I had to step off that roller coaster after procrastinating on it for almost 7 months, all the excuses were about other people on my team and the company I worked many years for.

The job had taken over my life and I could not stop enough to live and catch up with me and looking after me.

I delayed health checkups, appointment were put off or were not a priority, my parent's appointments were a priority, vacation breaks were not really breaks with the job still on my mind - a "mobile"call away.  I could not put it away because of conditions of the job. The team was always lacking, we were always short, I was always filling the gaps and worrying over issues which I now realize were problems I was trying to ducktape while management took their time to fix. 

But well it seems life does not always go as planned. Covid19 happened. 

I managed to continue with plans made much earlier to go on holiday to the UK before the virus caught up there and then it was time to cut short that holiday and return home.

Learning about myself (remaking) took about 3 months. I have managed to drop some old habits but I am still constantly trying to fill my time with activity. Learning to sit and breathe or sit still is not easy.

I was able to spend alot more time with my folks and not worry about deadlines whenever, wherever.   Strangely being at home I felt I had to cook and clean. So I stopped forcing that schedule and gave myself time out. Started some card crafting again but that took a while to take off.

 

I started to put myself into a "should"situation again where I tied myself to doing things that filled my time rather than things I wanted to do. So I decided - cook when I decided to and clean when I wanted and leave time to do other things that made me relax and happy. This helped me to slow down. to think. reflect and take deeper breaths.

Perfect Existence

What is the perfect life, 

the 'ever after' of a fairy tale? 

No pain, no strife, 

no sweat, no ail. 

What to do with all that happiness, 

but to seek more not less, 

adventure in the silly 

to weather reality.
Are we ever satisfied? 

With eyes opened, look outside. 

So much need, venture into the reality. 

Poverty and loneliness, it's rampant. 

Reach out, step up, you will see.

Plant a seed, make something happen. 

Dwell not that life can be better, 

but that our existence will matter.

(HA - 2009)

Growing old in silence....

Grow old gracefully? How do we do that if it's not within our control?

Depression takes a few forms, I'm seeing it in those around me.
Is it a mental condition or is it about self-awareness ? Seems like getting stuck in a history cycle that plays only the negative memories and pulls one into a pessimistic stupor. Why can't one get stuck in a happy cycle, a positive one.. that doesn't pull everyone down with them.

There are times when I feel I might be depressed, only it seems like a pity party to me.
Loneliness ... no.
Being alone , I think that 's more like, what it's about.

Your friends are not always there for you, kids have their own lives. Timing may not be so convenient.

It's more about not having a companion to do nothing with and to share the silence with you. Someone to rouse you out of your lethargy and make you walk and talk.
Sometimes, I think that's what it is.

Going back in time, just to spend more time with my kids

This evening I am thinking about it again.

I don't regret my marriage, because I don't regret having my kids. Unfortunately because of that life I realize I was not able to spend enough time with them as they grew up. I would say I am most unfortunate in that.

My ex was fortunate and yet it seems he lost himself a long time ago. I remember wishing to take a break often because of the stress of the job ...if only he had a stable income, if only he was stable. He was always after the next opportunity to make a fast buck, always taking a gamble ... a risk.. so I plodded on, continuing to do what I had to, I was good at it but it was stressful.
It was and is the nature of the job, the industry.
You never catch up with your deadlines, you just try to hold on to time as long as you can to complete, to refine, projects just pile, and I am always, always running after a moving train, never catching up.

The time is gone, my kids are at the age where friends are more entertaining. Now as I look at the photographs of my kids I am thinking how much have I missed out, on memories and moments and get angry at this man for what he was and was not, and probably could not be. Hindsight as they say ....
That time is lost.
I have them now and yet.

I am still at it today, and I am thinking it's time for change.
I'm figuring out my finances, can I afford a less stressful job that pays less.and consumes less of my waking mind.

My ex is gone, what does that make me in the eyes of the church

Ever since the divorce I have had this unclear place in the church.
I felt like I was one part outcast and one part catholic.
When I first mentioned it, I said we are permanently separated since there is no such thing as divorce  in the church. I don't think I was wrong, yet this priest I said it too did not take it any further.

Whether or not, I initiated it made no difference.

The faith I have with Christ and God is strong and prevails, I suppose I placed too much on what a priest says or what they did not say.

It seems now it is clear. 'Til death do us part' and so I am officially a 'widow' then. In secular life I am not. But faith does not allow me to separate the two.

I can feel no grief just a deep sadness for my children and my past that led them to be.  God have mercy on his soul.

In a way I am freed in more ways than one.
I realized that I lived in state of fear (at the back of my mind) that there would be 'going back to court'for some thing or other even after years .because of what he used to do.... and so I just kept everything in the form of paperwork and new paperwork to keep as support cos I might need it some day.
Ridiculous right.

I started to throw out a lot of the old papers and it was freeing and lightening.