Tag: acceptance

Back from July

Hello all. I have really been feeling a tug to get my writing started again. I hadn’t been on my site since July. I logged on today and read my last post, as I had SLIGHTLY forgotten when the last time I was on. WOW………..

Here we are in December. That post is so definitive to where life was and is now. It’s been a whole 30948459438 years tied into the last 6 months (It feels like it, yall feel me?).

Where I am today? I’m knee deep into a Step Study (Celebrate Recovery, woooohoooo), pulling out all the ick of my life, trying to ensure a somewhat better, stable, future for anyone I may come in contact with. You see, in life, once you are in recovery, you’re never out of it. It’s never complete. It’s ” I’m in recovery” not “I’m recovered”. Yes, I no longer have a substance issue, but the tough stuff stays with you. Triggers happen whenever. Plus, I never finished a full study so I am VERY excited to have the opportunity to complete what I started years ago. I have hurts, habits and hang ups that I work on daily. Some old, some new. All being dealt with at the hand of a SUPER strong sponsor, a glorious and imperfect group of ladies and God.

The funny thing about working on yourself….the devil listens very intently to that. It’s his playing field. He tap dances on our attempts and successes in life. Well listen here, jerk, God’s got this. I am not living in fear. I am living proof that God reigns and will always.

We are all living in this pandemic filled, life. Everyone is teetering on the idea of being too careful and not being careful enough. Do we trust the world, or not? It’s an every day, where am I at TODAY, kind of life.

I have since changed jobs. I am no longer in social work. I am a special education assistant at a virtual learning school. It does not fill my soul like caseworking but I am very thankful for the uplifting environment. I get wellness breaks and we have book studies. It’s definitely a different life.

I am working on finding ways to feed my helping heart. One way is I am co-leading a group for any and all struggles. It’s helps me stay focused on good vibes and it’s helping out others. Win win.

My best dog friend dies suddenly. It hit hard for the family. She was the tiniest boxer, and those that know the story, know I fought HARD to get her back when she strangely disappeared years ago. We gave her the best life we could for 6 years.

The fiance and I attempted several different times in several different ways, a wedding, but it just didn’t work out. We had Covid, life and location issues the first time, the second time, one of our pastors and the grandparents had Covid. We ended up going to the jail at bonding and visitation and had our friend stamp her seal on the marriage license and took it to the courthouse to pay our fees. What a strange way to make a lifelong decision. I did call his and my pastor to meet us at the courthouse for a prayer and blessing. THAT was special. We are hoping to have a wedding ceremony in 2021.

You see, like I said before. The devil attacks. He’s been attacking us hard. I have dropped to my knees, screamed in my car, outside, anywhere, I have had a prayer chain of strong in faith believers, loud prayers for protection over our family.

We lost my husband’s father this year. It was inevitable but unexpectedly abrupt. I had just spent the last year getting to know him and, like always, it feels so unfinished. The last moment with him, he was in his big chair. He was mostly conscious. I sat in his lap and we just held each other. Tightly. God blessed me with that moment. He blessed both of us with that moment. Matter of fact, he blessed the hubs, also, as he was standing directly in front of us. The hubs went on a special men’s 4-day retreat in July and his father passed away while he was gone. His mother sent me on a plane to Ohio to tell him and get him back safely. We barely made it back in one mental piece. Our lives have been completely turned upside down since his father got sick.

Hubs left his job as a deputy to pursue a state trooper life but decided against it and has since returned to being a deputy. We have talked about building a house, we are working out land options with my grandfather, but timing and Covid are everything. 5 people in our tiny house is a struggle but I’m bound and determined to make sure it’s Gods timing and not ours.

My mother and grandparents have self quarantined due to health issues and is has been hard on us all. I miss them. I try to visit my grandparents on their porch for coffee time when I can and I try to connect with my mother on the phone often. I’m trying to respect their space and worries, but at the same time, I struggle with loss of time spent.

I just keep praying that God will intervene where He already knows it’s needed. I just keep praying.

Scriptures that I have been holding onto are:

Proverbs 16:9- In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.

Philippians 3:12-14- Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that which Christ took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 43:19-For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! DO you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

1 Chronicles 16:11- Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek his presence continually.

Robbed again

I second guess most things parents would never think about.

It hurts my soul to do so but without, I feel anxiety.

I question when my children are quiet. I question them going over to others homes. I over analyze their actions and reactions. I live in a prison that was not ever mine to live in.

I pray for God to ease my mind. I pray for God to wash my mind. I stay up in the middle of the night praying for horrible images to be released from my mind.

It’s a life-long sickness. One dealt with mostly in silence.

I do the best I can with my children and I pray they never experience a loss of innocence. I pray I parent them to the best of my ability and for God to cover me and them. I pray my children aren’t broken. The overwhelming thought is that I just don’t know, and may not know until years and pain of locked up emotions come barreling out in the worst ways. I just keep the best outlook I can on life and raising them.

But in the back of my mind, I know it can happen to them.

What is on everyone’s lips? RONA

I’m sitting here with an itchy throat, mucus everywhere, steroid pill in my tummy. I have a sinus infection. But in the back of my head…. I wonder….

My family wonders…

This environment is something I haven’t experienced before. I remember a lot that rocked our country. From trials of celebrities to the World Trade Center. But I’m not sure I recall anything that changed the world as this has.

I am a Caseworker. I work in child protective services. We are what they are now calling “essential workers”. I have been on call now for 5 days. I’m exhausted. The worry that the virus will spread to my family scares me. I’m a fairly decently healthy person, so I will overcome it. I have 80 something year old grandparents that live beside me and a 2 month old baby neice that lives on the other side of me. They are precious to me and I want to keep them safe. But I must do my job. I must go about my day as if nothing is different when the entire planet has changed.

Here I am sitting with a child that has nowhere to go. It’s approximately 130am and I’m so tired but I do my best to keep my eyes open. I pray this child finds a place that is appropriate for her situation. I pray her parents get their lives together to get her back.

I pray my children at home, who are far away from me, know that I love them so much and I think about them every second of every moment I’m away from them.

Here I am leaving the hospital after getting a call about a special needs juvenile. I’m starting to feel sick as I leave the hospital. I was screened when I walked in so I know my temp is OK. I have 3 more days of on call. I have to hold on.

My 3 kids are out of school. They have eaten anything they can get their hands on. They don’t get the meaning of working from home. I have had deadlines and paperwork on top on more deadlines and paperwork. I have had to have conversations with clients while my dogs barked loudly at a vehicle driving by. My kids asking me where the this and that is. They do not care.

Just the other day I was attempting to play Uno with them while typing case notes. It was a disaster. They are bound up and don’t fully understand why. They are enjoying being away from school but want to be able to roam free. I have to continue explaining to them what isolation is and why it’s the safe thing to do as I disappear for hours in the night to calls.

They hate my job.

I wake up the following day and I’m sick. Doctor deems it as sinus infection. Ok. The task must be completed. I just keep telling myself, it’s almost over. But I know there are so many other “essential workers” that are grinding and will continue to grind. Keep y’alls heads up. This is what we were made for. We were made to thrive.

Who I get to be is because of who they were.

I breathe in. I breathe out.

Air. Oxygen.

Life.

A gift.

I look over and see a man. A strong man. A sexy man. A broken man. A recovering man. His chest rises, then falls. His nose flares. I notice the stuble on his cheek. (I imagine when he wakes up, asking him to pluck the good ones. He tells me no. I pucker up. He allows me a few in exchange for my happiness.)

God has shown me in ways I don’t have time to tell, how to love better; how to manage my anger; how to show true love and kindness. I’m able to work this out with him. I fail but I give it my all. I love because God loves me.

God is allowing me to love this man through the hardest time of his life. I am showing him love that isn’t always reciprocated right now because I believe in God’s promises and I believe in this man.

I am grateful to his late wife. I appreciate her giving me the gift of raising her son in her honor. I did not know her but I have learned from her son and husband and other family members, who she was. I make sure to talk with his son about his mother often. I listen to stories of her life before Heaven.

Loving a widower can be confusing and painful. There are feelings of never being able to fill the shoes of a Saint, knowing if the wife didn’t die, your relationship wouldn’t exist. The contradiction your heart feels between jealous moments and heartbreak for the survivors can be a lonely place at times. I could live in those moments and be unhappy but I choose to focus on the gift of knowing my man does not know the bitterness of divorce and the complicated ongoing frustrations of raising children in separate homes. He had an in tact marriage that wasn’t perfect but that ended as God intended, till death do us part. It was way too early and painful beyond my imagination but she and he were blessed to have had the marriage they did.

I am where I am today because of their life together. Thank you, B.

React

If you can’t learn how to react appropriately, is there really a change?

Ponder this for a while.

Communication is our strongest desire and our weakest skill.

Will update later.

Hi. It’s later.

If communication was fully understood at the beginning of any interaction, chaos would be minimal. When I communicate a, b, c, d, I mean those very things. Who I am speaking to can hear something different, or maybe they don’t appreciate the seriousness of your communication.

Did you ponder like I mentioned earlier?

I did.

So how do we get someone else to understand our communication? We can’t. We cannot control anyone else. All we can do is work harder at learning to communicate what we feel more appropriately.

Reacting can be a response to when our communication fails.

That’s also something we cannot control in others but we must control ourselves.

If you need to walk away…. Take a breather…. Drive down the road….go to God….. Scream into a pillow….. Do that.

We cannot take reactions back. Once they are out in the universe, that’s it. If you put negative out, you’re responsible for it. You’re responsible for the pain you caused and the scar that comes with it.

I don’t say this to strike fear but for us all to understand the severity of damaging others and ourselves. We are all born as clean slates. Our experiences in this world are written all over us. Don’t be the reason someone else’s slate is shattered.

Protect yourself from instances where your slate will be damaged.

That’s a lot. I know.

This is me. This is my process. I share what I’ve learned as I learn it. TRY to learn it.

Assistance to assisting

Who I am now didn’t happen overnight( and still working on it daily). It wasn’t an easy road. This happened over many situations.

Here I was needing help from the government. Using WIC (women’s infant and children) to supplement a small amount of groceries monthly, discovering that no matter what, I was going to be treated like dirt at the heart of my seeking assistance.

I remember sitting in the office of the local health department after an embarrassing low of asking for assistance to support me and my child. I sat there being looked down on by the worker. She was irritated to be at work. She was irritated that I couldn’t give exact information on his father’s income. She didn’t know I was in my second semester of college and I had made a determination that I was going to be someone someday. This woman acted as if I chose to be there. My choices DEFINITELY landed me here. But I didn’t want this life. For me or my baby. I was trying my best to dig myself out. Everything she did and everything she said to me, she wanted me to know I was wasting her time and so was everyone else she had to deal with in her day. It hurt me. I even called to make a complaint although I know it didn’t go far.

Every few months I had to come in for a redetermination. Every few months I dreaded it. I couldn’t continue to take this.

This day I decided to find my place in this line of work. I decided I would try my best to show people respect no matter the circumstances. I wanted to be a fresh face someone saw when they were at their lowest point.

Fast forward 5 years. I got my degree (by the grace of God) . Then I got another degree (still shouting God’s grace) . Then I faithfully applied to DHR. I got an interview. I got an acceptance letter (Amen) . I accepted the job.

My first day on the job was nerve wrecking. I had worked so hard to get to this place. Here I was. My anxiety was high. The place was new. It was different. I tried my very best to be uplifting and positive. I tried to listen to anything I was told. I got settled into my office. I had an office y’all!!!

And then…..

I met the woman that was so negative toward me the day I chose my future. She was a kind lady. She was very helpful to me, being that I was “the new girl”. I mentioned that I had needed assistance years ago and remembered her. She didn’t remember me. I felt it was best not to go further with the story.

To this day she is a good Co-worker. We get along well.

She has no idea how she was fuel to my already burning fire to make a change in this life.

Alone but not lonely

God bless me.

I’m sitting in church. My children left for children’s church. I’m completely alone. I am the only one in the pugh. And I’m ever so comfortable. And it’s all because of God and His love for me. I used to have such anxiety because I had a spouse that was miserable to be there. Then it turned into I didn’t have a spouse to hold my hand. How beautiful God is to calm my soul.

God has worked a miracle in my life. I sing the songs to praise His love loud and proud. I sway back and forth. I smile and tap to the beat. I don’t feel an emmense pain in my chest. I feel a glow of God. It beams off me.

God is so good to me.

God has loved me when I am unlovable.

God is working on me daily!!!

Just a rub

I just want a back rub. I want a person’s touch on my body. I want to feel a release of this stress I’m holding so tightly to. I want to cuddle. I want to spoon. I want intimacy. I want comfort. I want security.

But I don’t want it with just anyone. And I don’t want it without God.

I don’t want someone to tell me why I’m doing or not doing something the right way. I want this world to understand something it more than likely never will. I want an understanding of where I am in life and what I’m trying to accomplish.

I’ve heard it before and I will pass it along. Being with no one is so much better than being with the wrong one.

Life is about time. We have all the time but yet our time is always disappearing. I want my time to be appropriate. I want what’s right.

I don’t know what that means right now. But I know I don’t want to move.

God please keep this true to my heart.

Amen.

What is what?

I come to you today with a heavy heart. A broken soul. A tired mind.

Once again, I don’t understand.

Can life really be this hard? Can there truly be 3 complete sides to a story? Can one of us be so blinded to what is there and the other be just as blinded?

I’m on my knees. I’m begging God.

I want what God wants. I want to make my Heavenly Father proud. I want peace. But I can’t seem to get it. God, show me.

Proverbs 2: 2-4