Simply trying to regain my clarity and purpose, listening for that still small voice. If interested you can read the first two parts of the saga here:
#JustBelieve #HopeLives #LoveChangesPeople
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Tag Archives: Questions
Grief, Loss, Triggers and Other Stuff
I wrote this post with tears behind my eyes. Although they were wide open I squeezed them tight so that no one can see and nothing leaks out that would give away my feelings. Yes, I am hiding, but also writing. A frenzy of emotional free writing.
I am angry! I am sad! I am frustrated and …
My stomach is in knots, my muscles are tense. I feel the passion surging inside of me and I am afraid of it spilling out into a fit of rage. While my mind spins with questions that have no answers, for I long ago learned there are none.
Triggers come in all sorts of ways. A voice, a song, a memory, a word.
Maybe it’s just me as I read posts on social media encouraging others to ‘copy and paste’ in honor or remembrance of something or someone. Especially in honor of someone who is battling or has lost a battle with cancer with the hashtag #cancersucks or something.
This is my story, my reality and my life.
I lost someone to cancer many years ago and yes cancer sucks. Not a day goes by that something doesn’t remind me of her. When she died, she left a hole in my heart. I watched the traditional treatments wreck and devastate her body, mind and spirit. And in the end, it did nothing to prolong her life nor improve the quality of her life.
So, yes, I am jaded.
My experience may be vastly different from others. Yet, this is my story, not theirs and this is my voice that is screaming in the silence of unanswered questions. Nighttime skies as dark as death where stars twinkle on unconcerned and the cold vastness reveals no measure of comfort to assuage my pain and longing.
Posting in honor of someone, does nothing. Really, that’s the best you can do?
Be careful with your words, your images, your pictures and posts you share. Everyone experiences things differently. Triggers! No two people experience life in exactly the same way. There is no comfort in false words of hope and solace. We toss around platitudes like confetti in the wind, left to fall and be carried where they will. With no thought of those on the receiving end, intentional or not, will catch the true meaning of our hearts.
Yes, I am bitter. Yes, I am … hell I don’t know what I am.
I do know that I am strong and this will not defeat me. I will bang a drum for those we have lost and never assume to understand someone else’s experience and pain. For I never would expect the two to be the same. #JustBelieve #HopeLives
Are You Happy?
So,… what say you?
Do You Believe in Fate or Faith?
Is it Fate?
Or is it Faith?
Are our destinies set? Can faith make a difference in the ultimate outcome?
I believe that faith is stronger than fate and we must chose to believe that hope lives.
“To live is Christ, to die is gain” Say what, how is that?
“To live is Christ, to die is gain”, what? How is that?
Death takes me further away from God, not closer. Death throws a silence over my faith. God is good. Let’s explore a little what it means to say that when:
- You have faced death, tragedy and destruction of your world.
- You come face to face with your own mortality.
- You are intimate with the death of someone you love.
- You watch helplessly as the breath fades.
- You are alone with grief your only companion.
Can you say ‘God is good’ and believe it when faced with an ending?
With no one to blame, is evil the easy answer? Or is it the answer for the cause of so much pain in the world?
- The violence,
- The hate,
- The addictions,
- The lust, and
- The greed.
Good people are hurt and evil continues unabated, while we make excuses.
- Collateral damage?
- Innocent victims?
- Life is hard and you die?
Illness, sickness and death with no concrete cause leaves you with the consequence. What is the grand design and meaning if there are no coincidences?
My life was irrevocably altered and I say I still believe. Am I angry and blaming of God? Showing an image to the world on the outside, but inside… do I believe? This face I show the world is that the truth of me? The question remains, do I believe what I say I believe?
Alone in the dark, with God’s total utter silence. No words from beyond except for a faint whisper of “Trust me.” If faith is evidence of things unseen, I have the evidence.
What remains unanswered is why? The question that still haunts my waking and sleeping, but no answer ever seems forthcoming. “Trust me.” Do I have faith in the finality of that? What is next? A next life? Is it there? Heaven? Hell? Fade to black?
Time to give myself permission. Feel the fear, accept that loss and devastation may return. “Trust me.” It all makes me tired, very tired. Life is more than waiting for the ‘hammer to fall.’ The days and the years go by and the hole in your heart remains. “Trust me.” You laugh and love again. The joyful moments you desperately longed for return, but we fail because of the fear to live, present in the moments. Juxtaposing the past, present and the future. “Trust me.” Whispers through my mind while I feel a –
- Fear of God
- Fear of loss
- Fear of happiness
- Fear of succeeding
- Fear of failing
- Fear of guilt
- Fear of forgetting
- Fear of hurting
- Fear of love
“Trust me.” Time to give permission to live, be happy and love again. Permission to enjoy, delight, cherish, feel everything and accept.
“Trust me.” And you wonder if you can love God, accept your destiny, your life, your fate, for “I have come so that they (you) may have life and have it more abundantly,” so a reminder to
(Originally written in October 2008, updated October 2010, October 2013 and again now, January 2017. Each time the mystery of unanswered questions continue as I contemplate my life’s journey the last twenty plus years. I am still learning to believe that hope lives. ~M)
3 Things To Do If You Are Feeling Invisible
As we begin to fade, seeming to become invisible to those around us, our emotions mounting in a cascade crashing over us like waves onto the shore pushed by stormy winds. No one seems to care; no one seems to notice. Our contributions seems unwanted and unappreciated. Our feelings will deceive us so I offer this, STOP!
- Seek God first
- Seek silence
- Seek truth
This is exactly what I will be doing. I do not necessarily feel invisible to those around me, but to myself. I am feeling, (yes feelings are deceptive) and yet I have an overwhelming sense that I am losing myself, becoming invisible to myself. I am unsure who I am, what I want and even what I need anymore. I have been acquiescing to what I think others want me to be. Truth is I can’t be what everyone else wants or expects me to be.
Thus, I have decided to take a break, from blogging and social media for awhile and the voices in my head. For how long? I cannot say at this point. Only a day, a week a month, I just don’t know.
All I know is that I need to find myself. I must protect my heart which is frayed and worn. So, I will dive into the undiscovered to:
- Seek God
- Seek silence
- Seek truth
Thank you for understanding and may God richly bless you. ~M ♥
Mima Mounds Natural Area – Olympia, WA
Sunset from the tree line at the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve outside of Olympia, WA in the Pacific Northwest south of Seattle.
Acres and acres of mounds cover this vast prairie, all mounds surprisingly similar in shape and size.
- What are they?
- Why are they here?
No one really knows.
The theory’s on their origins range from prehistoric gophers, Native American burial sites, erosion, volcanic eruptions, glacial freeze and thaw cycles, even tsunamis and earthquakes. But, got now there is nothing even close to consensus on the origin of these mounds.
Although, not as majestic as Mt. Rainier, nor as intimidating as Mt. St. Helen’s or as breathtaking as the Olympic Mountains, there is an air of mystery. As you walk through the mounds, the soft breezes blowing the prairie grasses at your feet, there is a feeling of something larger at play here. It is spiritually awe-inspiring and foreboding at the same time.
Maybe sometimes, there are things that we are not supposed to know and the trick is to learn to live and be okay with the mystery. Once the mystery is solved the mystique is gone.
