The Hours

I am now officially residing in BellTown Seattle. It has been a long time coming. The view of the Space Needle at night is breath taking. I am so happy about living in the city. I do however have to get used to people walking right in front of our windows. I like to keep the windows open during the day, little man and I love people watching. I find myself wanting to scare every unsuspecting Seattlite that walks by, by yelling, 'RAWR' lol.
There is a surprising amount of foot traffic outside our windows. I would have said it was because we are only a block from the Seattle Center, but we get just as much foot traffic at 3 a.m. as we do during daylight. Laying in bed listening to the late night car and transit traffic is soothing. It reminds me of my grandmother's old house just off the freeway in Monroe. I would stay up late listening to the unseen traffic zoom by. The only two differences now are that I am now sharing a bed with my fiancée instead of my grandmother, and I now can also occasionally hear the drunks on their way home. Listening to them scream, mumble, and stumble makes me wonder what their story is, and what led them to drink.
Internet will be connected on the third, so for now I am writing you from my lovely Android MyTouch.
For now, this is Orchid in Seattle, signing out.

Walking Blind

I have never thought about where things are going in my life, as much as I do now. Looking back on how I used to live my life is like looking at old archived news papers in the library news paper reading room, that just shoot the grey papers by so fast. I was so caught up in life. I was never in any sort of stable environment. Moving constantly, relationships constantly changing. I used to be so bold. lol I say this because I would always meet up with anyone I met online, as unsafe as that may have been. I was all about making friends, experiencing new things and having a good time.

I like to think I am the same person now, though life has slowed down so much. I am in my second serious committed relationship. The first one tore my heart to shreds. I really gave into that pain and heartache. I lost everything I was. Several years have passed and I still feel like I am trying to get on stable ground. Trying to find myself again. I have a lot to work on.

I've been so hurt by people who are closest to me, friends and family. I forgive. Always. I get hurt again. I forgive again. It is a cycle. When I watch shows like 'Sex in the City', 'Desperate Housewife's' as naive as it may be (i know they are tv shows) it really makes me sad. I want more than anything to have a group of friend I can turn to no matter what. A group of individuals I can really count on to be there. People I can have a good time with, and get together with on a weekly basis. To play board games, cards, watch Lword series, or whatever. I sort of feel like I am stopping myself. I don't know why, or how. I don't even know how to go about making friends. That is pretty devastating.

We move next week. I am exciting because this feels like the last move, for a long time. I will be in a central area close to family, and lots of activities (so I stop being a home body). I will be broadcasting from SEATTLE baby! I can take a short bus ride to Westlake Center or even Pike Place Market!

I have no idea what comes next. I am walking blind into love, into life and into what comes next. My eyes are blind folded, and my heart is ready for anything to take place.

Turmoil with Food

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. --Mark Twain

Its time to get to the core of why I'm overweight. Food has been my crack, my heroin, my meth, my cocaine, my alcohol, my family.

Having issues with weight is always about more than the food. My beliefs show up in my relationship with food. So if I'm eating when I'm not hungry or bored, I'm basically saying I can't feel these feelings. Life is too much for me (or not enough in my case). There's no goodness in my life except for food right here, right now. I'm basically eating because I've given up on something, some part of myself. You think that, 'I am so small that the pain is going to overwhelm me,' but in reality the truth is you've already experienced that pain.

And what food does at that point is it doubles your pain, rather than make it go away. You're still in pain about what you were in pain about before you ate, but now you've added a whole level of more discomfort which is: 'Oh, I can't believe I ate this. What's wrong with me? Am I ever going to get my life together?' Then you're feeling like a failure on top of the discomfort you were feeling before.

Most people who are not over weight do not understand that food, to us, is an addiction. I am addicted to food. We use food to 'Numb out'. We use it to cover our feelings, our boredom.

I have never been a religious individual, more spiritual. When I refer to 'God' I refer to something that is bigger. We each have this longing—we've had moments of awe and wonder in our lives. A lot of us don't call that God, but we know that something is possible for every one of us besides our daily lives. The way we get caught with errands and taking care of other people. We feel that this possibility exists, wonder and mystery and possibility ... or the feeling you have in nature. The feeling that everything is possible. I have learned that my relationship with food is directly related to how close I am to the source. The issue isn't really the food. It is about my disconnection from that which is real which we call 'God'. Real = God Life = God

We turn to food as an obsession, addiction. Obsession gives you something to do besides have your heart shattered by heart-shattering events or emotions. The emotional struggle that accompanies overeating is familiar, whereas the "heart-shattering events" are often new and raw. We are afraid that the pain will destroy us. Or the heartbreak, or the discomfort even. We don't actually know that we can feel those feelings without being destroyed by them. Getting up and living day-to-day and going through the stuff of day-to-day, that's difficult. But somehow we believe that food is cushioning it.

Conquering issues with weight starts with learning to love yourself. How do I start looking at myself and loving myself? Kindness.

You might ask, 'What made you come to this conclusion?'. What really clicked was recognizing that going to the food hasn't been working and that what I've been looking for isn't in the food. So what I am trying to get rid of and what I am trying to not feel, it didn't help to be eating over it. The other thing that clicked was that there is a whole lot of pain there to look at. I need to look at some of the layers, recognizing some of the beliefs that are keeping me at the weight where I am. Those beliefs, are that I'm not good enough, that nobody likes me and that nobody would accept me the way I am. Being overweight feels like a disability. I am still a person, a human, just like you. I wish people could see that.

Growing up as a child was so hard, what I'm really feeling is every time I have ever been beaten by my father. Every time my step mom told me that I was ugly. That I would never find someone to love me if I was over weight. That over weight individuals do not deserve love. She looks at me with disgust, hatred almost. What I recognize as I'm stuffing myself with the burgers, sandwiches, is I still have that feeling of if I don't do what pleased the other person, then somehow that person has the power to annihilate me. I've been so intimidated by someone who isn't even in my life anymore.

We somehow believe that if we hate ourselves enough, if we shame ourselves enough, we'll end up thin, happy, peaceful people. Somehow if I torture myself enough, I'll end up feeling great about myself and about my life, as if hatred leads to love and torture leads to contentment.

Does that make sense at all?! Hell to the No!

It's time to start loving myself, treating myself.

Guilt & Regret

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh. – Henry David Thoreau

I used to think that guilt and regret went hand in hand... The emotions of guilt and regret are often so inextricably linked that it's hard to tell the difference between the two. Subtle as it is, there is a difference between feeling guilty and feeling regretful. In order to fix mistakes or move forward emotionally, we need to be able to differentiate between the two.

Recently I had a different perspective on guilt being presented to me. Lama Samten from the Buddhist Monastery Karma Choeling, north of Auckland, said that he has had difficulties understanding the exact meaning of feeling guilty. Someone who grew up in Tibet knows regret, but does not feel guilty. Lama Samten suggested that feeling guilty might be based on the assumption that at the time we would have had the power or capacity to do things differently. When we feel guilty, we overestimate ourselves.

Examine the motive of the event, experience or decision that is causing you to feel this way. Motive is important when trying to differentiate between regret and guilt. If what you have done was done in order to cause another person pain or harm, then the feeling you are experiencing is guilt not regret.

Listen to your words or thoughts for the words "I wish." These words often indicate you are feeling regretful that something turned out as it did or didn't turn out the way you had hoped. Regretfulness occurs when you've inadvertently acted or made a decision that caused harm or pain and you wish you could change it.

Regret gives us the option to make up if we hurt another person, it allows for a softening that is necessary in asking for forgiveness. When we make ourselves feel guilty, on the other hand, we intensify our suffering and often harden.

After differentiating the two... I feel regret. I am guilty of many things, but never have I felt regret. To me regret is almost worse than guilt. Regret is knowing that I did something wrong, even though at the time I had no control over what had occured, I wish with all my being that I could have gone back. I could have done something different.

I regret that I left my brother and sister alone with that devil of a man we call father. dad. uku. The parent. I was only about 13, 1999. There was so much going on. I regret being put into foster care and leaving them alone in his care. I don't remember if I ever asked them if they were okay. I don't remember if I ever told them how much I loved them, and how sorry I was. I only remember the looks in their eyes, begging me to come home. A year later I did.

2010, 11 years later and I still feel such regret. Such sadness. Such pain. The only thing I can do is ask for their forgiveness.

Will they forgive me?

A Tribute to Kylie Elizabeth

A beautiful girl was taken to heaven four years ago today. She never took a breath here with us, but I know she blows kisses to us from heaven. Every year I post the poem that I wrote for her and read for her at her funeral. I find peace knowing that Kylie is watching over her two sisters. I find peace knowing that my sisters daughter is the guardian Angel watching over them.

Happy Birthday Kylie! Auntie Loves you!
(picture taken this year by my sister)

Kylie lived her life with in my sisters womb.
Years like minutes cannot last for too long, locked within that juicy tomb.
Let those who mourn remember she died,
In sweet communion with her soul inside.
Eearly in the pregnancy we felt you kick and move,

Eager to greet you, never thought so soon.
Life is a burst of joy and pain, and then like yours its done,

In our thoughts you'll always be the sparkle in the sun.

Zero breaths did you take when you entered earth,

Although you looked so angelic in your still birth.

But now we have to let you go, your spirit can be free,

Everyone will hold you near their hearts, where you will always be.

Tiny little baby, at home where you belong,

Here we gather to rejoice in tears, as we listen to the flutter of your fragile wings song.

I am a Pisces.

I don't know who I am. In an effort to find who I am I looked up my sign. I have always been fascinated by astrology.

This is extremely interesting, and hard to believe how true this is. It explains me to the 'T'. Here is an example of a problem that I as a Pisces could come across, and the solution:

Problem: A strong sense of despair not shared by family and friends, thus leaving you with that all alone feeling.

Solution: You must come out of yourself and open up to those around you, you have the power to inspire others making you an important part of the human race; take your rightful place.

Is that not what I am doing right now? I think it is. That is the reason for this blog.

The animal associated with my sign is the fish,(actually two fish swimming in different directions). The two fishes swimming in opposite directions points up the inner tensions of the sign of Pisces. I am currently at war with myself and I am so indecisive it drives me crazy.

I have a tendency to adapt emotionally to my environment. I am shy, and I am adept at imitating the mannerisms of those around me, in order to hide my own personality. (maybe for fear of not being accepted?) This is frustrating because when I sit down and think about who I am, I have no freaking Idea.

"A Piscean can too easily become a victim by identifying with the personality and problems of other people, because this severely restrict the development of their own personality and talent."-- astrology.com

Thinking about this blog too hard has brought me to the idea that maybe this is all silly. Trying to find out my past, hopefully leading up to me meeting my biological mother. I have so many questions, but is it meaningful? What am I looking for? Am I looking for a relationship with my mother? If so, is it worth it? I mean if she wanted a relationship she would be making some effort to getting to know me, don't you think? Will this help bring me closure? Or is this something that I should just let go of. *sigh* I have no idea. I am just going with the flow, and its like a tsunami of emotions coursing through my heart, my body, my mind, and my veins.

I know I am nothing like my brother or sister, or father for that matter. I am nothing like my paternal grandmother. Who am I? I don't know. Speaking with my grandmother in Florida, I am starting to learn of my family on my maternal side. I have an Aunt, 3 cousins, 2 half sisters, and of course my mother. What I hear about my Aunt and all the children, is that they are all very free-spirited. They have grown into themselves as children should. Never being coached on who and what they should become. I admire the stories I hear of my younger sister Sophie. She is like me, but the inner me. The 'me' that has not surfaced. Sophie runs around in hippie skirts barefooted. She is a writer, and a magnificent one at that.

She is the kind of girl who likes to see the world turn while she spins the other way. In her next life she'd be that glare of sunshine flickering in between strands of hair, or a tambourine. She is a free spirit. Always bare foot and always smiling. She tries her best to send good vibes out to everyone she meets and to love as many people as she can. This is how she describes herself. Beautiful isn't it?

I admire how she knows who she is and I am 25 and have no clue who I am. I wonder if that has anything to do with how I was raised. I know it does.

Some things I do know about myself..... I have a lot of sympathy. I would love to work in charities, cater for the needy, or be a nurse looking after the sick. I am a currently a Support Advocate for children and Adults with Developmental Disabilities. I am excited to become and Advocate for Woman and Children against Domestic Violence. If only I knew where to begin. How do I get myself involved? I would also love to work or volunteer in the GLBQT+ community.

Here is something else I found quite interesting about myself according to the astrology website:

"Pisceans are never egotistical in their personal relationships and give more than they ask from their friends. They are sexually delicate, in the extreme almost asexual, and most Pisceans would want a relationship in which the partner's mind and spirit rather than the body resonated with their own. Unfortunately they can be easily misled by a lover who courts them delicately and in marriage makes them unhappy by a coarser sexuality than they expected. They are nevertheless intensely loyal and home-loving and will remain faithful."

I think the whole asexual thing is hilarious because it seems to be so true in my case. I would much rather masturbate alone than to have sex with my partner. Isn't that horrible? lol. wow. Well, what can I say? :-) I love to watch :-P

I guess little things like this website, help bring truth to who I am. It helps me to recognize, understand and accept who I may be.

All I can do is take this one day at a time. Hopefully you will be here to accompany me on this expedition.

Being Honest with Myself.

As I chatted it up with my friend about a little about what my blog is and what I am hoping to get out of it I came to the conclusion that I am afraid.

I am afraid of what YOU the reader is going to think of my life, if I am being too honest, too blunt, too open. I am afraid of what my family is going to think about me writing about our life, as it does not just involve me. I am worried and scared about what truths are going to unravel. That maybe that perfect grandma that I always looked up to is the very one who holds all the devistating secrets.

I just do not know how this is going to turn out. So I turn to you, my readers. I need your support. Let me know you are here, share your story, comment on mine.

This is going to be a very long and exciting journey. Hold on tight!