Skip to main content

The bookmark

    I sometimes realize how much fear I still carry around with me. Sometimes I think that I am completely past the fear that engages my mind, and then I am hit with something that draws me back so forcefully that I feel all the air being dragged from my lungs.
    It happened tonight. I was talking with my mother about the things in my life and where I feel my life is heading, and she thought that perhaps there was a negative outside force in the means of my ex being something that was bringing negativity or abrasion into my life. I immediately reassured her that it wasn't so.
    But, I told her there was something else...and I fear it is my doing entirely. My fear...being a bookmark. When I was younger, I always wanted a bookmark for the book I was reading. Whether it be a new one or something significant I used to mark the page of which I was currently on. Now days I use a pen or pencil to mark said book.
    Which means that I still use something to mark my spot. My fear is that I am that bookmark. But, what does that mean? We use a bookmark for one purpose. To keep us at the place we choose to be until we are ready to turn the page. I use this analogy because it makes the most sense.
     I think for Z I was a bookmark. I was a means to keep him at the place in his life until he was ready to face his own reality. But, I believe I used him for the same purpose. And how horribly wrong it was. Neither of us knew any better. Neither of us understood the consequences of that meaning of which we placed on the other.
     What I realize now is that I will not now nor will I ever be that for anyone else. I believe sometimes it is so easy to become comfortable with a constant in our lives that we can invariably use people as bookmarks to hold our lives at a place that keeps us comfortable. We can use someone without realizing that the means of which we use them is in the end more damaging.
     But what do I mean? I find myself in the presence of someone who allows me to have become comfortable with my own situation. Do I mind? Hardly! I find it welcoming. But, I only know me. I only know my own true heart's situation. I only know my own reasoning behind the need or desire to have become so comfortable. It is for perhaps a grander purpose. But, what of theirs? Am I a bookmark?
     Do you want to know what I really think? I think I am scared shitless. I think that I am a bit scared to allow myself to let go enough with this person that I will only wake up one morning realizing that I have become a placeholder for their own benefit. Immediately this makes me want to put up walls and boundaries to guard myself against future hurt. I want to completely shut myself off from vulnerability that I in turn hurt myself.
     I am at a crossroads. I don't know what to do. Do I make it known and allow them to perhaps fuck me over now? Or, do I wait knowing that I might be fucked over later? Or, do I trust a part of my heart that I have come to neglect in the hopes that I will be saved from the hurt? I don't know. I have no idea.
     There are moments when I feel I am too old for this kind of internal pettiness. But, then again, I realize that I am just a normal human being trying to make it in a world that would almost rather see me suffer than succeed. I can't. I won't. I refuse to be a bookmark. But, am I just brave enough to find out if I am allowing myself to be a placeholder for my own small bit of sanity? Guess time will tell.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Beneath the Weeping Willow

  "The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows—a wall against the wind. This is the willow's purpose." —  Frank Herbert, Dune   Time, although a very evasive concept, is in each moment a gift. And most often, I don't stop to look back at the road I have traveled on. Even more so, the road Justin and I have travelled together. But today it is warranted. Today marks 9 years as husband and wife, and 9 years of truly some amazing and adverse moments. We have lost the most cherished and birthed the most loved all the while interwoven with each other.    I will be the first to admit that our day to day appears to some: mundane. However, inside the ordinary he and I together have understood the profundity of love. It is brash and loud, but it is also cautious and quiet.  "Love is a many splendored thing."  It is the true basis of community, and I am proud of the community we have built.   The  willow  is the t...

A human mirror

  I look at myself, a lot. I think it has something to do with the fact that I didn't think myself attractive for a long time. Now, I can look at myself even when someone else is in the bathroom. Before, I entered with head bowed and left the same. There are times when I look at myself 3 times before I leave. Most of the time, I focus on one aspect of myself: my eyes, my hair, my waist line, my clothes...something. I can see how this seems egotistical, but perhaps I am making up for lost mirror time.   However, I can only remember one time that I actually looked into the mirror to see something deeper than my outward appearance. And it scared me. I honestly didn't think it was possible to look into the mirror and truly see oneself. It always seemed so cliché. Until I did it.   That was 4 months ago. The moment I decided to walk away from a "relationship" that was nothing more than a confusing drag. It held me bound and clipped the wings I knew God had given me to f...

It's the underlying peace...

For some reason, dating my first boyfriend was hard. I was 21; he was 18. We were together for maybe 2 months. I am even reluctant to call him my boyfriend. Classic story of he wanted me; I was bored...voila. And not too long before I broke it off, I found myself in the sacristy talking to my then pastor. I was confused and hurt. I honestly can't even remember why. But he changed me that day.   He told me this: when he was discerning the priesthood two weeks prior to ordination, he struggled. He struggled so much he was beginning to believe his choice of vocation was wrong. His spiritual director at the time told him to pray. He told him to spend one solid week praying as though he was going to leave formation. Leaning all prayer toward that thought. Then, he told him to pray the next solid week as though he was going to stay and become the priest that he believed, at one point, he was supposed to be.   And as he prayed, he struggled. His mind wanted to wander and his desire...