Sigh.......
Yep that is where I am currently at. I am not quite as melancholy as the sigh might indicate, moreover I am at a crossroads and trying to muster every bit of energy I have to do battle with.....myself.
I was looking back through my blogs at all the "changes" that have happened throughout all of these years. One thing I noticed is that life just seemed to happen to me and I kind of just allowed it to leave me dazed and to knock me off my axis. Oh yes, I blustered and blew about it and at the time did even take steps to control the chaos that is often my life, but at the end of the day I might as well have had WELCOME written across my forehead as I was little more than a doormat for my life and the people in it.
Much has happened in this last year that has shaken me to my very core. Who knew that when I was served with an eviction notice that it would not be the worst event of the year? I know I was certainly shocked as my life went into hyper speed with new and literally terrifying daily updates. My life felt like I was in the drivers seat of a car without breaks and I really wasn't sure if I wasn't going to crash and burn before all was said and done.
I am nothing though if I am not resilient. I was able to put the brakes on my life and stop the crash and burn. I was also met with some truly difficult facts about who I was as a person and who I wanted to be going forward. Strong people don't allow others to dictate their life choices or allow themselves to be actively manipulated or walked all over. Apparently, all the people commenting to me on just how strong I really was, were dishing out nothing but FAKE NEWS and at some point I had bought into the hype.
The reality is, in small pockets of my life, I am extremely strong. In anything having to do with David, his life, his health and his home/security....I am the David to the worlds Goliath. Sadly, that is where I think my strength and my ability to handle my own world end. Rather than be strong with the rest of my world, I found myself being controlling.... and who controls? Those of us who feel absolutely out of control and in complete chaos. The very definition of.....ME! In fact, if you look my name up in the dictionary......
When my latest life update occurred, so did a lot of realizations about who I am, where I have been and where I plan on going as I move forward. In fact, there were moments when I questioned if "forward" was even a possibility. You will be happy to know....it is....because I am making it a possibility. I also realized that I am tired of life pulling it's surprise attacks and trying to change me. Granted, there are many things in life I have zero say in and zero control over (i.e. other people, freak accidents, the fact that Larry Hagman died and they will never bring back the original Dallas), but what I do have some say in and some control over is my life and how I act/react to situations and what I will and will not allow in my life.
While all of this on the outside looking in seems pretty normal and some are probably scratching their heads and wondering why this is such a revelation to me, the truth is......I have been on the inside looking out for so long and just simply so accepting of the unacceptable, that for me.....this is a true revelation.
Of late I am learning the true meaning of words such as "acceptance," "detachment" and "forgiveness." I am learning not only their meanings but also how they work in my everyday life and I can honestly say it is helping second by second. It's a good thing too as my life is about to leave behind the slow steadiness of summer and propel it's way into the beginning of school and the onset of fall. Even saying that I can feel the anxiousness well up as I think about the uncertainty of the future and all that I think I need to accomplish. I am no happier though if I sit here and focus on the past and try to make sense there. While I am a huge believer in the fact that you have to acknowledge your past before you can successfully navigate your future, thus far.....my future hasn't always been so successfully navigated, so I have decided to try something different. I have decided to live in the present, take advantage of the moment....whatever it has to offer and leave the past and future to themselves as controlling, fixing or changing either one of them is completely out of my skill set.
Let's be real, this living in the moment, acknowledging the moment and appreciating the moment are quite frankly hard, as I am not wired to think like that. What I have noticed though, is the more I focus on the here and now and what I can control/fix in my own life, the less I focus on others and the more I stay out of other peoples lives and give them the opportunity to control/fix their own. Crazy....right?
So....yeah.....this is pretty sighable stuff as I make the choice to move forward as a better me and work on controlling only that which I can control (me) and stop letting the world, circumstance and others control me. This maybe the thing that actually brings on the true change that I have been searching for all these years......and not a moment too soon. After all....I am 55 and I plan on getting the next 50 years right!