PIPER SMALL IS A BLOGGER/WRITER BASED IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES.

SHE IS MOST INTERESTED IN TOPICS RELATED TO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE IN MODERN LIFE, FAMILY, COMMUNITY, NATURE, SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, DEPRESSION AND PTSD.

SHE TRIES TO DO ALL THIS WITH AS MUCH HUMOR AS POSSIBLE. 

Love in Pain

We continued to talk more yesterday about our relationship, the situations that are being created due to bio family involvement.

I can tell Jay is genuinely concerned about me and loves me. I can tell this isn’t what he wants to have happen and that I’m his priority.

I can tell that I need to get my head out of this place and take care of him and us. The therapy in the next few months ahead I think will help w/ my lack of security and the resulting neediness and lack of trust in myself and people.

I don’t feel I have a voice to just say hey, this isn’t great for me. Can we try a different plan? I get angry and very scared and then lash out instead.

I didn’t lash out this time so that was good.

Yesterday he said he wants to have a relationship of abundance instead of scarcity. He said that due his shields from attachment stuff, he hasn’t been present for me for much of our marriage which I would say is true.

What have I also done?

I have been angry and attacked, trying to get attention and help. It didn’t work. I finally started voicing my overall unhappiness in 2014 and here we are today, in a better place but it’s been a very long haul.

Tonight at group, I asked the question, where have you seen love recently? One of the people in our group is a therapist and he thought a long time then said, “There is a couple I saw today, the last client actually, and they’ve both had a lot of trauma. They are trying to reach for each other and find themselves and each other in the midst of this trauma they’ve both experienced. That’s where I saw love today.”

I think that might be the most true and wonderful thing I’ve heard in a very, very long time. I feel so odd and broken so often and yet there are so many out there fighting the same battle for themselves and for their marriages. What a beautiful story and it reminded me of why I keep hosting dinners and generating conversation.

Maybe that’s one of my passions or missions? It’s not something I can currently make money at but I sure feel passionate about creating spaces that foster community and closeness and love and acceptance.

When their kids answered, they said they felt love w/ their parent’s friends and mentioned me. Their mom smiled and was happy. She said they never said those kinds of things before when they had a lot more friends. Now they have fewer friends but are focusing more on quality. She said it made her again realize on a sortof hard Monday that they continue to make the right choices in moving away from an old group of peers and finding new lands w/ new people.

That’s all for today. I am determined to become resilient with my emotions and abundant as well w/ love for myself and Jay. I’d like to become more of a student of Jay this year and celebrate him and his life. That’s not something I’ve felt the ability to invest in. I’ve not felt safe enough to give more than I had been giving. I think it’s a very good thing that’s changing. We both deserve it.

Snowy Tuesday

The Pain