Category Archives: happiness

Just an Afterthought

Posted on by learning to live like water

I just remembered something about last night that my friend and I both found really cool.

We walked into this bar/cafe, and because they had a good band playing, even at 7:15 every seat was taken.  As we were looking around, a woman at the bar said to us, “We just came here for dinner, and we’ll be leaving in 15 or 20 minutes.  If you stay here, you can grab our seats when we go.”  They were sitting at the bar, which is our preferred place to sit, because it’s just more casual, presents a better opportunity to meet and talk with people. That was so cool!

Then while we were waiting, there was a high table, with no chairs, where we could stand and at least put our wine glasses on it.  As we stood there, another woman who was seated at a high bar on stools (there are individual high bar tables scattered around) offered to us the empty chair at her table.

When we finally sat down at the bar, which was only about 15 minutes later, we were sitting there, and had our coats on the back of the bar chairs.  My coat fell off, unknown to me, and someone came over, picked it up, and gave it to me.

Just people, being so nice!!!  People talking, like family.  It was a neighborhood bar.  Small. The bartenders were 3 women, so friendly, so nice.  The people at the bar all talked to each other.  Someone came and asked us to dance, I deferred to my friend, lol.  She loves to dance, I am ok with it, but was not feeling like moving after 3 glasses of wine, lol.  While she danced a man next to me began a convo with me.  He was younger than me, and I think he really had his eye on my friend who was dancing, she was much closer to his age (she’s 50, I’m 64) .  But he asked how long I’d been single, we compared our ring “scars”!  LOL.  He’d been married 22 years. Me, 32.  We kind of understood each other, lol.

It was just so pleasant, to actually have people who were friendly, kind, normal interaction with fellow human beings.  We had a blast.  My friend was so happy she got to dance.

It restored my faith, that most people in this world are good and kind, and loving people.  I guess that’s why I had such a good time.

Rising, Rising Strong

Posted on by learning to live like water

Woke up happy today! Even though it was my cat Maggie who woke me at 5:30, snuffing and purring around my head. I don’t know why she did, it’s not her normal MO. But whatever. I laid in bed for about 15 minutes, luxuriating in the fact that I did not have to get out of bed and get ready for work. I slept well, again.

Feeling more centered and grounded, and myself than I have in a long time. There are no unresolved issues in my head. I have a lot going on, like, a real life. No illusions, it is all real at the moment, and not something I have to roll around in my head constantly wondering what is really going on. I have vacation, plans with friends, a house to get ready for sale, things to do.

There is no drama. I can’t believe what a difference it makes, to have the drama out of my life. I sleep, for one thing. I am smiling a lot more. Thinking clearly. God, it’s so good to feel like maybe all that stuff really is in the past, and I only have good things to look forward to at the moment.

I guess some people, just love the drama. I like it in a movie, or a play. But in my life? Uh uh. No. Not at all. To live it? Nope. I leave those who love it, to live it on their own. I remove myself….

Real life, real truthful, honest life is so much more interesting. Knowing who you are, and what you want is so much more fulfilling than the wondering what is going on, or the creating a situation where no one knows what’s going on. I have extracted myself from that situation.

The sun is out today, bright, beautiful. It is cold but warming. I intend to take a long walk today, hopefully I’ll find a friend to go with me. Life is also bright and beautiful at the moment.

In the words of Rumi…

You have seen my descent

Some Tough Memories

Posted on by learning to live like water

bad memoris

I’m afraid my last blog brought up a bunch of memories I’d forgotten, or pushed down, last night.  One in particular, was of my son, not long before I left my marriage.  I walked into his room and he had his shirt off, and was bruised all down his left side.  I gasped and asked him what happened.  He said “oh it was at hockey mom.” and went on to make up some story, which I can’t remember, all I can remember is the mass of purple bruises on his chest.  But I believed him, even though he’d never had any thing like that in all his years of playing.  And it didn’t really make sense, when I thought about it later, a hockey player is well padded from head to toe.  But apparently ignorance was bliss at the time, I was planning my escape, I just accepted it.

A couple years later, when he moved in with me, we were talking about his dad, and how he never talked to him, and maybe he should try forgiving him.  I said something to him about his father never hitting him.  He just looked at me.  Then he said quietly, “Mom, remember when you walked in my room and saw those bruises on my chest?”  Of course I did.  He said, “Dad did that.  He didn’t like the way I practiced, so on the way home he was hitting me with his right hand/arm all the way home while he was driving.”

My ex was a big very strong man.  He had arms the size of some people’s thighs.

I thought I would die.  I wanted to crawl in a hole for not figuring that out.  And it was apparently not the only time his father did something like that.  He swore my son to secrecy, somehow.  Threatened him if I ever found out.  Because he knew if I found out I would have had him arrested.  No doubt.

The night before I started my job, my first job outside our family business in 30 years, he started a huge fight with me, I’m sure because he was losing control of me.  He flipped a salad out of my hands so it flew all over the kitchen.  Then he started walking toward me, drunk.  I had my phone in my hand, and I said, “Go ahead, hit me.  I’d really like to see you in jail tonight.”  And he stopped and turned around and walked away.  Because he knew I meant it.  So he knew without a doubt, if I knew he’d hit our son I’d have called the police too.

But the guilt I felt over what he did to my son, on top of all the berating and belittling, trying to break his spirit, stayed with me for so long, and it easily still comes back.  It’s hardest to forgive yourself.  And last night I had to somehow get through that all over again.

I am so grateful and blessed that my son is such a good kid today.  I am so glad that I finally realized I had to get out of there, even though I had to leave him with his father for a time, I got through it, we got through it.  We have dealt together with what our lives were back then, I made him talk about it.

So many people feel like I should make him somehow talk to his father.  I just can’t, no one can understand what that was like for my son, and the fact is, he has a great life now, sans father.  I don’t know that his father could add anything but more chaos to his life.  I leave it up to him to deal with as he sees fit.  He tells me he’s not angry at his father, nor hates him, he just doesn’t want what  his father brings to his life.

So, it was hard to get to sleep last night, remembering this.  Related to that abuse, I guess, in my head, was S’s ease of betrayal of me recently.  Wondering if I’d ever find an honest true loving man.  It all seemed to fall in the same pot of abuse.

This morning, I still believe he’s out there.  I still believe I’ll find him.  The pull to Florida and a new life is strong.

Feeling blessed, that my son is a strong, healthy, wonderful kid.  And that I have a wonderful life now, with all good things in my future.

Love and light, all.

 

Hockey Lessons

Posted on by learning to live like water

hockey lessons

Geez, I had a good day on WP.  Not a lot of visitors, or likes or comments, but like double the normal amount of views.  I have no idea what caused it, someone was reading old posts.  But it gave me a lift, it’s nice to see interest, although a few likes would have been nice, lol.  But then, maybe it was someone who didn’t want to register. 

Whatever.  Brene Brown says the world needs us to share our creativity, and this is mine, at least it’s my most passionate creative effort.  So I am happy for a day when twice the normal amount of my blogs are read. 

I got my hair done tonight. It’s such a treat to have it done.  Feels like pampering myself.  My hairdresser has two young girls who play hockey, and since my son played for 10 or 12 years, we have a lot in common.  I so remember our lives being wrapped around that sport.  Crazy. Hours in the car, driving all over New England for a one hour youth hockey game and turning around and coming home.  It would have been great family time, if my ex hadn’t been such an ass, and had to “coach” my son by telling him about everything he’d done wrong and “motivating” him by telling him he sucked at the game.  Poor kid.  I tried to stay out of it, because that only made it worse.  But there were times I couldn’t.  To sit in that enclosed car for 2 or 3 hours and listen to him verbally beat up my son was unbearable at times.  So I’d interfere, and redirect my husband’s anger at me, and off my son.  About the time my son got bigger than my ex, and a lot tougher, my ex stopped.  It also helped when I moved out, because he needed my son as an ally. 

Luckily, my son loved the game, and played anyway, and actually became quite good in spite of his father. (It’s no coincidence he hasn’t talked to his father in about 5 years.)  Many years he played up a year to the next age group.  He’s a big strong athletic kid.   He finally had to quit to be free of his dad, but he learned a lot of good lessons.  How to think on his feet (hockey is one fast game), what team work is, commitment to something, to other people.  How you can’t bullshit your way through life.  If you throw bullshit around in that game you’ll get hurt.

And how to skate like the wind.

Well, life lessons for a young man from hockey.  Some for his mom too.  Maybe even for his father, if his father can sit down and own what he did.  But I doubt it.  He seems so stuck on a life that didn’t work out the way he wanted, despite his best attempts to control the behavior of everyone around him, via threats, and yelling, and brow beating, withholding….

He never understood that the only control he ever had over my son and I was the amount he loved us. And that never showed up at all. Both my son and I tried endlessly to earn his love, his approval, to meet or exceed his expectations. Never could. Not when he changed by the minute what he expected or wanted from us.

I don’t understand the mind set. Well…I do. He believes love is something you earn, not something you deserve just because you are. He used to tell me to “use” my love for my son to motivate him. To give it and take it away as a reward or a punishment.

Can you imagine? Geezus.

It was the main reason I left him, almost 9 years ago. I had to give my son a choice, I had to let him know there are other options, other ways to live that are joyful. I wanted him to know that living in a household where two parents can’t say a kind word to each other, and the father has a temper tantrum on a regular basis that included throwing things, and making messes for me to clean up, wasn’t normal. I needed it for me, but if I didn’t do it for him, I would have lost him, I know.

So, wow, I wasn’t expecting this blog to go here, but it did….

Better times started the day I moved out. There were rougher times, but that was the beginning. The end of the fighting, anyway. Except in court, we did that for long enough.

We have such a good life now. Just blessed, really. It all turned out well, I think we learned our lessons. I know that love is the overriding emotion in this household. And that’s the only way I would have it.

Love and light, all…..

 

 

 

Note To Self: Don’t Be Stupid

Posted on by learning to live like water

stupid

My son called me on the way home.  I was actually almost home, about 2 miles away.  He said, “Brian and his girlfriend are here and we’re making hot dogs in the kitchen.  I just wanted to warn you.”  Which, translated, just means it’s a little chaotic in the kitchen. 

When I got home I realized he meant BRIAN, who is a chef at Bobby Flay’s restaurant!  Making hot dogs in my kitchen.  Brought his own utensils!  He made his own relish, he split the dogs, grilled the buns, put in the relish, put cheese and bacon on top, and OMG, they were so good.  It was fun to watch him work, lol.  Chopping, cooking, putting together….I told him,”I can’t wait to go to work tomorrow and tell them that one of the chefs from Bobby Flays was making hot dogs in my kitchen!” My son told him he could open his own restaurant.  LOL. 

And they cleaned up the kitchen!  And ran the dishwasher!  (O.o)

They have been friends for a long time.  My son took his girlfriend there once, and Brian comped him so much food. Son said he paid about $100, but he had to bring home the other two entrees, and 4 desserts….crazy good food. 

So that was fun. 

The rest of my day was….Monday.  I had a really unsettled feeling in my solar plexus all morning.  I went to lunch, to the cove, since it was almost 50 and sunny.  I ate my lunch, and read my book club book, The Gifts of Imperfection.  I idly wondered about my solar plexus.  Was it me?

Was I upset over something?  Was there something I wasn’t addressing?  Was I worried over something? 

Or, was I feeling someone else’s angst.  S’s….  Idk.  I kind of thought, he’s so mad at me for my “Don’t Look Back” blog.   But I couldn’t tell. Then I wondered if he was really depressed.  I wondered how things were with her, was she talking to him, if not that’s why he was depressed, blaming me, I wondered about his chest x-ray and if he got bad news…I started wondering too much, he was creeping back into my psyche.  I was allowing it.  Even though I think it was his energy I was feeling, I was allowing it.

I put on meditation music on Pandora.  I closed my eyes, and sat in stillness for awhile.  10, 15 minutes. I remembered how when we didn’t talk for 2 months, and I’d get this, I’d send him reiki.  By now I only had about 10 minutes left, but that’s what I did.  I focused on his heart chakra and his solar plexus, there wasn’t much time left.

I headed back for work, and I felt like crying.  I was so overwhelmingly sad.  I don’t know why.  Just felt so much sadness, it might have been from him, it might have been from deep within me.  I don’t know anymore.  I got back to work, and as the afternoon wore on, I felt better and better because when you give reiki, you also get it, because it passes through you.  Reiki usually works this way, gradually.  Not an immediate change, but you just start feeling happier, more balanced.

When I got back to work, and had a minute, I actually drafted an email to her. I worry as much about her well-being as his, if not more.  I wanted to tell her, how I spent most of the 3 weeks I was seeing him, talking him down, trying to give him hope that she would talk to him, and that, finally, the last morning,  he decided he was not going to throw in the towel, that I’d talked him into believing there might be a chance for the two of them.  I wanted to tell her that I loved him enough to only want his happiness.  That we had comforted each other, and that was all.   

But I didn’t send it.  I realized that nothing I could say would not add to her hurt over that.  That I sounded like I was justifying myself, and I shouldn’t.  I loved the guy.  That’s why I was with him.  The fact that he needed help, that we talked about her, was secondary, really, to me.  I really and truly only wanted to see him be happy for once in his miserable life.

And then, he betrayed me again, by saying he really hadn’t wanted me, and I had to work through it again. And now…..I love him still, but the answer to him, if it were ever to be asked, would be perpetually no.  Because my heart is not safe with him on any level.  Not even as just friends.  When things go wrong for him, he will betray anyone, no matter what they have done for  him, or how much they love him.  So, first time, shame on him.  2nd time, shame on me.  Third time?  That’s just stupid.

I can’t, won’t interfere between them.  I can’t tell her what he said, I can’t tell him what she said.  I don’t want to be in the middle.  Anything I said to her would insert me squarely in the middle.  Even if they stopped me….there my energy would have been.  It did me good to write the letter.  And then to delete it. 

I am fine now.  Not unsettled.  Not worrying over him.  Not worrying about her.  Feeling free of them both tonight.  And I’m sure they are happier that way.  I’m glad the reiki worked, at least for me. I don’t know, won’t ever know, if I was even feeling his energy and if I was, if the reiki helped him.  I don’t know anything about him, right now, if he’s healthy, happy, sad, angry, depressed, or none of the above, or all of them.  And it’s better that way.  As I said in the letter to her I wrote and deleted, anything I know about him only cords me energetically to a man who never loved me.  The less I know, the easier it is to continue letting go, walk away, move on. I think of him with sadness, he is such an unhappy man. I rarely saw him happy, in all the months I was with him. Except in bed, lol. He was pretty happy there.

So….interesting day. Worked through some stuff, in a way that is consistent with who I am. Got a lot done at work, made some calls that I needed to get made. And, I came home to gourmet hot dogs! LOL.

 

Getting to the Other Side

Posted on by learning to live like water

NewLife

I got so much done on my house yesterday.  I think one more weekend and it will at least be ready for these people who are interested to see it.  My son promises to go at his space today, and it’s by far in the worst space in the house.  I just have the bathrooms and the garage to do.   Even if these people don’t end up buying the house, at least it will be ready to put on the market, pretty much, when I get back from Florida.  I will need to paint the deck, but I don’t think I can do that until the days are longer and warmer.  End of April maybe.  I’m going to hire someone to come in and get the yard in good shape, cut back the shrubs, etc.

I had so much fun talking to my friend in Florida last night. Old friends are so wonderful to have.  I haven’t talked to her, except FB messenger, for a long long time, but we know each other so well, we just pick up where we left off.  I just love her to death.  She’s just one of those people who never allows anything to take her joy of living from her.  I can’t wait to see her.  Having her there, where I want to live will be like instant immersion into that life.

Which will move me at light speed  away from this one, lol.  It’s time, really.  Definitely time.  It’s funny, I have had the plan to move to Florida since before I met S.  The relationship with him did not deter it.  It has always been there.  It could have worked out in many different ways, either for us, or for me.  If he had wanted a relationship, and to retire, we could have shared each other’s homes, had a place to go in the winter in Florida, a place here in New England in the summer.  And kept our independence, both owning a home.  We could have just visited each other. It turns out it became my escape route, from the devastation he wrought on my life for a time.  I’m so glad it’s one dream I never gave up.

I think at times, well he wanted a relationship, just not with me.  But then, did he want one with her, really?  If he did, why did he do what he did, knowing it would kill it.  And if it wasn’t dead, then spending January with me, certainly didn’t help breathe life back into it.  It’s not my problem any longer though.  I look so forward to loving a man who knows what he wants, and who doesn’t engage in self-destructive behaviors constantly.  There is another side of life, and I intend to experience it fully. 🙂

Lovely to have slept a good night’s sleep last night.  Today is supposed to be warm, at least warm enough to go to the cove for lunch.  It’s been so long, I am looking forward to it.

Off for my 2nd cup of coffee…..Love and light, all.

 

Making Plans To Be Happy!

Posted on by learning to live like water

I just had a long talk with my friend from high school who lives where I want to move in Florida.  She is one of the most interesting people I know.  She’s an artist, was a merchant marine for many years, and was married to the 2nd mate of the ship. Her whole family at one time worked on the ships.  Now she is an artist, first, she paints.  Her work is so vibrant and full of color.

Pat's art

pat's art2

Anyway, I am going to see her while I’m in Florida at my sis’s.  She said I could stay there for a night, and see a realtor one day and spend a day with her.  If I can get a car to get there, but my sis may loan me her car.  Or maybe I could rent one. IDK.

Anyway, she has been singing with a friend of hers, blues, at some local watering holes.  She has a blast, gets free drinks, and has fun doing it.  She says she knows a bunch of hot old men musicians my age!  LOL!!!

Then we began talking about having an art studio when I move down there, so she’d have a place to paint, and I could make jewelry, write, whatever.  She has a couple other friends who are some type of artist who might want to go in on it too.  This town is full of galleries and artists, etc.  She also said there are many venues to practice reiki for money.  I’m pretty excited about it!  I may be able to make money and not have to get a regular job!

It’s looking good….Firming up every day.  Big changes in the works, fun, necessary, happy changes.  I’m getting really excited about it.  The universe is listening, it seems.

Love and light everyone.

Sleeping Under My Own Power

Posted on by learning to live like water

Before-I-Sleep

I have discovered a secret to sleeping well, I think.  I suppose it’s not a secret, and well-known by people more enlightened than me.  I’m not, historically a good sleeper.  I used to be, when I was much younger, until I spent years in an abusive marriage.  Being hypervigilant every minute is not good for sleep.

The last few nights I’ve had trouble getting to sleep, or staying asleep.  I’ve resorted to a low dose Ambien a couple times, because I have to have at least 5 hours of sleep to be functional at work for 9 hours.  6 or 7 is better, but 5 is the minimum.  I don’t like doing that, though, and don’t want it to be the habit it was for 6 months, when I had carpal tunnel, and after, when S did his thing to blow my world apart.

Last night, when I shut my light off, I snuggled under my comforter, and began to recite a list of things I was grateful for.  Actually saying, thank you thank you for things like, my warm bed.  My warm house.  Food in my pantry.  My son in his space.  My upcoming trip to Florida.  My sweet cat.  The ability to pay for the muffler that I just had put on the car.  My friends.  That I have two wonderful sisters.  That I had such loving parents.

On and on.

And I slept well, and easily. When I woke at 12:45, I did the same thing, and fell back to sleep easily.  Same when I woke around 3:30

Another benefit was that I woke this morning in a good mood.  I actually woke in a state of happiness, and that’s been a long time coming.  It’s so lovely to wake up and look forward to the day, not to wish I could just stay under the covers for 3 more hours.

Tonight I have gongs again.  Gongs and crystal bowls and drums and bells, I am looking so forward to it.  Always.  It always seems like perfect timing.  Such a good place, a good way, to let go of anything that no longer serves.  If you follow my blog, you know I have plenty of that!

So here’s to letting go of the stuff that keeps us up, and being grateful for the things that make our lives beautiful!  Love and light, all.

Looking Good…..

Posted on by learning to live like water

life is good

I’m so excited. I was out with a friend, at a local watering hole this afternoon. We were celebrating her daughter passing her nursing board exams.  It took her six years of school, because she was always working full time, but she did it and found out she passed this morning.

This is an old friend, I have known the daughter since she was 6 years old.  Now she’s 25.  And an RN.  So proud and happy for her.  Her mom, my friend, is also an RN.

But anyway, my friend said she had a friend who was looking to move from her neighborhood in a suburb, out to the town where my friend and I live. She currently lives in a development that has no privacy, no outdoor space for her 6 month old.  She is looking to spend what I want for my house.

My house sounds perfect for her.  3 bdr, 2 1/2 baths, full finished basement, a family neighborhood with lots of kids, (a 2 yr old next door), and she’s looking in my price range.  So my friend is going to tell her about my house.  There might be a chance I could sell it without having to pay a realtor!!!  OMG, that would be so cool.

It’s just a chance, but it’s a chance.  Wow.  Maybe the universe is really working in my behalf!  How awesome is that??!!

Warming me up.  Today was utterly frigid, it was -8°F when I got up at 7 AM.  Wind chills of -25°F. Brrrr.  But that news warmed me right up.  As did the 3 glasses of wine, and a band at the bar that was playing all my  music.  Neil Young, Allman Bros….it was a lot of fun, and fun to see the kids, her daughters,  all grown up.  So happy about that.

I was hoping to get out today, just to get out and get a change of scene.  I’ve been trying to un-stick myself.  It was lovely to get out with an old friend, and have fun, and see the kids and celebrate with them.  And then the added bonus that she may have a buyer for my house!!  Wow….Awesome.

Great day.  Happy.  Excited.   Life is looking good at the moment.  Really good.

 

Keepin’On Keepin’ On

Posted on by learning to live like water

ho'oponpono

I just came home from my gong meditation. It was very emotional tonight. The last time I was at one, I came home and found out an hour later that my mother had passed away. On the way there, I had an overwhelming sadness, of missing her. Just wanted to cry. During the meditation tonight, I felt her presence, all the time with me. It was warm and comforting and close, and emotional.

Combined with the other emotionally charged chaos of this week, I ended up with my head in my hands at one point. Releasing, releasing. Release often comes in the form of a chill for me, a chill that starts from the inside, usually in my heart or solar plexus chakras, and radiates out. It happens in the summer when it’s hot, in the winter when it’s cold. I always have a blanket over me because it’s so intense. Like the inside of my body is shivering.

I had a talk after it was over with my two friends who put it on. This one takes place in their house, which is just beautiful. They didn’t know about Mom, so we talked about it, how intense tonight’s meditation was, and rich, and warm. How I felt I wasn’t alone, and could feel her with me. Soothing me, she knows my heart. She knows my pain, she is my mother and she’s still here for me. I wanted them to know, that they facilitated something special.

Love never dies. Even when those you love and who love you are not with you, they are with you. If I love someone, I will always love them. I will always want the best for them. I will always want them to be happy. I learned this from my mother, who always loved me. It was good to feel her love tonight. Very healing.

I began to do the Ho’oponopono towards the end tonight. Maybe just to myself, I don’t know. Maybe I want to heal everyone, I don’t know. It is just such a beautiful mantra. It feels like surrender, like giving it up to the universe. My friend who plays the gongs said tonight, “It’s all stacked in our favor you know.”

Yes, I know. Even when it feels like it’s not. I know it is. It is this simple truth that lets me keep on keepin’ on.