
“Maiden Voyage”


Shell shock descends, making muscles and ligaments tighten from any stimulus – no longer anticipating attacks to begin.
Not constantly moving, monitoring, or managing 24/7 brings to the fore how depleted my energy has become from this last decade’s run.
When I was a younger woman, there were not as many of the supports in society as there are today in certain regions. I encountered much violence, idiosyncrasy, and hypocrisy.
So I decided to build my world around a man that I loved and who had once been in love with me, determined to do all that I could to help restore him to happiness and keep our family progressively healthy.
His leaving suddenly without warning pulled the carefully stabilized pin of success’ security out from everything. What was important fell to the ground, and those willing to help had to be managed warily.
When there is a sudden vacuum, the need to dominate and control in others can suddenly swoosh in under guise of kindness and “rescue.”
Having everything one invested in suddenly burn into ruin and one’s status diminished with abilities conscripted toward fighting for survival can unhinge needed constructs in psychology.
As an individual, it is now very important that I do not ever allow someone to devastate me in this manner again. It has taken too long to gain any recovery.
Two of the competetive athletes that I helped last week won their matches!
I like to think that I “had a hand” in that!
It is important to not have attachment – except for short-term projects and loved ones that you know you can rely on.
Such great, gritty guitar!
All the time, fighting to keep traction so I diminished losing ground.
Seeing my reflection in the car window as pass by, I smile encouraging myself.
I am this now.

It is unavoidable that changes to my appearance have happened.
I do not need to listen to the crone, and it angers me at how much she has siphoned.
My face now shows the strength of my endurance.
I am a Woman.
Tried and proven under pressures.
As I move into this new life, I cannot help but feel twitchy.
Afterall, I had essential needs denied to me and felt stripped of my humanity.
Allowing myself to sink back into my skin instead of constantly being in endurant warrior mode is a major renegotiation.

Attempting to recover goals in some cases can be like returning to a firebombed structure where as you attempt to sift through the rubble for anything salvageable, gusts of wind stir up the ashes of angst and vexation to choke you.
I am brilliant.
I am unstoppable.
When more hold space in their beings, the grace of healing expands.
Honestly, I did not know there were others like me.
I grew up in the Central Valley, Santa Clara Valley, amd the Central Coast while searching.
Only now do I begin to see reflection of my inner light emerging from seeds that were so long ago planted.
Picking out items of delight in the thrift store, for a moment I carry them in my basket, relishing the thought of decorating my home.
Then, I put them back, relieved to not spend limited funding, having brought them to light for the milling, hungry throng.
It’s ok to not have my next sense of direction, yet.
I’m going to say it.
I’m going to be it.
I’m going to do it.
I’m going to live it.
Just in time for tomorrow’s lesson!
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/john-mellencamp/aint-even-done-with-the-night-bass-1217797
I’ll check out the sheet music for “Ain’t Even Done With The Night” by John Mellencamp.
She told me to write a book one day – that she would have liked to read it.
It would have been long and boring if done traditionally, rather than here as current stream of consciousness
Intimate connections that I had thought and considered over now hit with more finality as I encounter proofs. I had not been hoping for more – but it still hurts to find myself on the outside of another sealed door with only the tiny, floating dust specs of memory to keep me company.
I once read about a male celebrity who mentioned how dicey it was to date these days because of the women’s protection movement prohibiting men to behave according to past assertive chivalric customs in courtship.
He explained that this made it difficult for him to feel secure asking a woman for a friendship outside of his known circles of preestablished friends.
If the options are slimmed down to friends and past singke connections that have now become partnered, this leaves a person with no one.
It seems that my relationship work here is done.
She had arrived in a region once lush with marshlands and wildlife, then diverted and drained for farming by a people basic in their needs and understanding.
As she grew, she sought others of her kind and gravitated toward creatives, unjudging of their temperments while supporting their good within.
Life was long and stretched painfully without engagement stimulation, so she stuck with a group like a drenched bird to a floating branch clings.
As the water of life carried her into her twenties to a gentle region by the sea, she thought she had done well for herself despite obvious difficulties.
Determined to create and nourish love when she could not find it, she turned her efforts toward raising two empowered children as her dynasty.
It became wrong to believe
Looking through love’s lens
Would guide me correctly.
The first one introduced me to the other two among new friends before he moved away.
The second pretended to like me long enough to dislodge me so that another girl could go after the first, who it turned out no longer wanted me.
Later, after the third saw how the second treated me over time, third made a bid for my company.
I loved him for his excellent qualities, his witty intelligence, and his heart for standing up for me.
I thought he was my man and fought for him for so many years – way beyond his initial chivalry.
Full circle complete, I move forward on my own. What can be built as individuals collaborating is not the same (or even possible) when prospective contributors have partners of their own.
They were all friends at one time, but then went their separate ways.
I loved each one in their turn, over years and separation from those days.
I saw the goodness in their eyes – the vulnerability they struggled to hide.
I did my best to reach for it and pull it forward into the light.
Each one now has a good life partner, and I am happy for them.
What’s Divine resides within us, waiting for us to reach.
Touching upon previous lifetime interactions restimulates camoflage behaviors attempting to smother now’s authenticity. Initially and with touch-and-go distance, I can regain my own progress – but it must be with limited doses of exposure so adherence to self grows stronger.
By night, haggard and brittle.
By day, still quite capable.
Whether positive or negative, having any creates dependency by entwining emotional strings.
It is a myth that one must be in “a good place” internally in order to give grace to others.
Rather, it is a test of one’s indomitable will to continue doing so under the extreme weight of pain, loss, and trauma.
At what point will I catch up to my true self, decompress and dispose of the past’s baggage, and make way for youth’s renewing waters to flow again?
The heart seeks peace where it cannot find love.
Being one, honed to the hope of love,
I was misled by others’ ambivalence
Torn by the chaos of neglect as
I chased truth through complex.
I did not think to expect
A more complete person:
There was no recognition
Modeled in my experience.
There is a time of confusion
When before must become
Truly a part of one’s past.
Predefinition of the self
Relies upon constructs
Which no longer apply.
An open mind helps
When on the road to
Create new paradigm.