midlife crisis?

Could I be having one? I’ve always been a bit precocious about things. I feel like I always fit better with the folks 10-15 years older than me. I’m trying to figure out what direction I want to do in my life…  I feel like I need to do some strategic planning on my life.

Do you ever do this?

Trust

I’ve been reading a book titled “Daring to Trust” to work on my trust issues. I do think I have some trust issues but I also recognize the state of my relationship really impacted that issue of trust. What I’ve learned so far….

When we feel unsafe with someone and still stay in that relationship, we damage our ability to discern trust worthiness in those we meet in the future.

Trust in someone means we no longer have to protect ourselves.  We trust in their good intentions.

If we are suspicious of people who are indeed trustworthy, we lose connections with people who really matter to us.

Self-trust is always to be placed first in our ability to care for ourselves.

Touching is central to trusting. Many of us are touch-starved. We may have suppressed our need for contact and communion  -which is form of despair about finding what we need in others.

Such needs are fulfilled in an atmosphere of the five A’s which are  attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection and allowing. Being loved and cherished just for ourselves and being in relationships that honor all of these. The quality of allowing is especially important to our growth , making room for us to experience our lives fully with no restrictions on the range of our emotions, self-expression or choices.

So we have to work on making intimacy and other growth needs a priority because our body has survival mode as its primary default setting. This explains why we might stay in a relationship that is not working: we imagine we need it on a survival level.

Our need is then not to be filled, only to be enriched. Henry David Thoreau said it this way “I will come to you, my friend, when I no longer need you. Then you will find a palace,not an almshouse.”

As adults, we learn to find fulfillment in ourselves, in our friends, in our family, in our pets, in our career, in our spiritual program, in nature, and in any other resources we discover. We then do no rely on a partner or any person for more than 25 percent of our need fulfillment. No one is meant to live with just one resource.

As we mature, the opinions will matter less because our own resources have grown beyond them.

Now we must trust ourselves as devoted caretakers of ourselves.

The love that has strings attached does not register in us as love at all but as a reward for meeting expectations.

When we love someone, we automatically want that person to be happy and free of suffering. This shows we always knew how to practice loving-kindness. Now all we have to do is apply this kind of loving-kindness to ourselves, to others and to all beings.

Now the goal is to play where both win, rather than only one. In a relationship, both partners are meant to play together as just such a team. Trust happens when we notice we are with a partner who is committed to playing with us for our mutual victory…

We play with reciprocal attentiveness and each of us backs the other up. It will take letting go of self-centeredness in favor of sharing authentic love to play like that. This means each partner can trust the other and each partner is trustworthy toward the other.

Wise adults begin relationships not with the romance phase but with an investigation phase. We check out the other, looking to see if they are trustworthy, have the ability to give freely the five A’s (attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection and allowing)and possess the qualities that are important to us.

Unhealthy relationships  – She makes me feel so good that I forget my uphill battle with self worth. I am dependent on her now to help me feel good about myself and she dare not go off duty because I can’t provide that for myself.

When we have an adult outlook, this does not lead us to turn on those who do not come through. Instead, we say “ouch” aloud to them, grieve our loss and move on without trying to get back at them.

Since trust takes time to develop, it is important for us to protect our boundaries in a new relationship.

To whom shall we go?

A healthy relationship is one in which each partner can securely go to the other when that need arises.
Our primary object of trust will always be the person who fulfills our primary needs.
We can rely on the one who loves us to pay attention to us, to accept us as we are, to appreciate and value us to show us affection in    appropriate ways and to allow us to live freely without attempting to control us.

A trustworthy partner is the one we can go to who will stay with us to work through a conflict. The focus being working through the conflict not making sure you win. Mutual trust means “I can be in conflict with you but with no sense of threat”.  I will still be here when the smoke clears and so will you.

A healthy relationship consists of continual addressing, processing, resolving and integrating struggles.

When that program is not in place for both parties we have no basis for trusting that relationship can work. There is no commitment when avoidance and denial take the place of addressing. We have no bond when refusal to show feeling or explore issues cancels our chances at processing our concerns. There is no contentment when a conflict in a relationship is not resolved but smolders instead. Then our experience cannot be integrated in our lives as an opportunity to grow.

In an insecure attachment to someone our nervous system is always on the lookout for non-attunement, a deficiency of the five A’s (attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection and allowing). Those disruptions of the smooth continuity of intimacy have to be repaired if a relationship is to succeed. Delay leads to an erosion of trust. This is why addressing relationship problems is so necessary in the building of trust. A commitment to a continual mending of failures by making amends for them is what makes trustworthiness real.

For instance, an affair helps us avoid the dissatisfaction we feel in our relationship. It can be used to avoid the uphill work of healing it by addressing, processing and resolving the real issues in the primary relationship.

How can we know when it’s wise to trust a partner?

1. Sincere work on letting go of ego for the success of the relationship
2. A continual giving of the five A’s, shown by attunement to our feelings.
3. The abiding sense that the relationship offers a secure base from which each partner can explore and a safe haven to which each can return.
4. A series of kept agreements.
5. Mutuality in decision making.
6. A willingness to work problems out with each other by addressing, processing and resolving them together. This includes a willingness to declare our pain about what is missing in the relationship and our appreciation of what is fulfilling.

Otherwise we have to live on guard and our ego has to grow proportionally as our protector albeit always afraid underneath.

People with a long history of betrayals of trust tend not to be trustworthy. They may be abusive or controlling instead. 

School is almost out!

I’m not being very productive today at work because I’m planning a road trip. I don’t even know if it’s going to be just me or not. I’ve mapped it out, I’ve prioritized what I want to do and even bought some new music for it. My summer schedule is slightly different from I’ve done it in the past. I’m doing full weeks versus three days a week(Mondays and Fridays off).  I’m also feeling motivated to get back on the health track, I’m committed to obtaining an elliptical machine before the end of June.  If I can’t figure out a way to get the one that sits unused in my partner’s basement, I’m going to get a new one.   I really do want to get back on track for physical activity because I’ve gained too much weight that I’ve lost and I’ve noticed the impact of the extra weight on my mobility. I’ve got to get my CSA share ordered, I’ve got to do it before they are sold out. I’m going to make a list of things to do….  I’m so excited about having a little more time to myself.

What’s your plans for this summer? I love possibilities!!!

I’m not feeling it lately

I’m busy but I’m not all together happy. I feel like I’m living underwater and it can be hard to breathe.  I keep trying to find ways to dig out but it’s not been working (or you’re catching me on a particularly difficult day).  I do have an extended weekend coming up but because of a retirement party I want to attend,  we won’t be leaving the area. We will be going to a Murder Mystery dinner though.

What I’ve been doing

With the last couple of days I had before I’m back to the grind, I installed an app on my Ipad to help me stay on track, it’s a to-do list. It pushed me to pay my car insurance, put the new cards in the car, get tabs for the cars and put them on. I also had to clean the bathroom, vacuum the stairs, pay bills and balance the checkbook. I did this all after only getting an hour of sleep and having a dreadful day.

I’m going to try to use it for work too but then I’ve got to take it to work, that might not be all that bad.

Thoughts to my Dad

I notice at this time of year (very specifically this day and the next) I feel like I’m walking through mud. I don’t want to do anything and everything is just really hard to deal with. Last night, I thought I could prevent this dreaded anniversary from coming by staying up practically all night. This isn’t so good when I need to be at work tomorrow at 8am. If I nap too long anytime today, I won’t be able to sleep tonight.

For the last couple of years, I’ve gone down to the restaurant to light a candle. Last year, it was empty because the restaurant had closed. There’s now a bakery there and they are open until 7pm. I don’t even know what to do…I’m sure there will be people closing up and I don’t want anyone to see me. I don’t want to have to wait it out so late because my drive is an hour back home and I’ve got 8am work in the morning.

I think I’m going to end up sending them an email. Good lord, how awkward is that? I sure hate this shit. Tomorrow I’ll be better.

apparently I’m posting at a rate of once per month

I’ve got two days left before I’m back to regular work hours. Summer will be officially over for me. I don’t feel like I even had one between training for a week, sister’s graduation and then ordination, teh boy’s graduation, my aunt passing. I did get a full week off that I spent at the cabin. One day we met up with P’s parents but two of them I had to stain the cabin and it’s only half done. I’m hoping in the fall over a couple of weekends that me (and others) will finish the last bits. It was dreadfully hot and humid when we were there, thankfully we brought the portable AC because with the windows open, the floor got sweaty. Saturday I pushed myself to finish the homework for two of my three classes (the third will be an incomplete until I finish it for fall). I ended up racing to the post office and getting there in only a minute to spare.

It just seems like I’m running around with so much to do that I don’t have any time for myself. I want to know how to get that back, it’s beyond me.  With my regular work hours coming back, I feel there will really not be any time.

There were plans for P to go to California in October but it seems that may change. I’m not sure she can afford it at this time. I think if that’s out, I’d like to go on a serendipitous trip. We’ll take the camper and just drive where it takes us. It’s only been used twice this year. Sadly with her health, she doesn’t really have the energy that I have so we go at a much slower pace. I like a change of scenery and I love planning adventures.

Oh well, I’ve got to get back to the grindstone. I’m going to make a list of what I want done today and start at the top and work down.

Can you believe it’s July?

My last post was preparing for so many things and now I’m still doing it. Mid May is when I went to my summer schedule from work but I sure couldn’t tell! It’s nearly the fourth of July and I’m still waiting to “start my summer”.

Lots of things have been happening, my aunt passed away, my sis was ordained early last month and my son was expected to graduate from high school (or so I thought). About a week and a half before the ceremony we discovered he didn’t have enough credits to graduate. WHAT?!!?!  I’m not sure the high school would have noticed it if I hadn’t called them and mentioned it. As a result, he had to attend two weeks of summer school (he completed it yesterday).  The reason his credit issue was overlooked was that for his senior year, he attended a local community college instead of high school. Unfortunately, he didn’t take 15 credits per semester that he was suppose to and there lies the problem. The brilliant kid (who I really think could be smarter than I am) has a bit of a procrastination problem, a bit of a motivational problem and thought he’d be fine. In some ways, I think his consequence should have been more painful but in the end he did get it done.

Initially, he was going to walk with his class and despite the credit calculation blunder,  he still could have. I felt that it was unfair to others to walk when he hadn’t completed his degree. The school didn’t care and I don’t think teh boy really cared (he was never really attached to his high school experience-didn’t go to any homecomings, proms or any thing like that, didn’t have senior pictures taken for year book or want a grad party either). It was after I told the school that he wasn’t going to walk, I realized I wanted to acknowledge this milestone some way.

Solution? Have our own private ceremony. My family has always been a bit odd, marching to the beat of our own drum. It made sense, so let’s do it! I don’t much like crowds or planning big party things but if you’re going to have a ceremony, you might as well invite people. He’s going to have to wear his cap and gown and walk down to Pomp and Circumstance anyways, just at a smaller venue. It started out with my family….oh, I suppose I should invite my partner’s family(I always get to go to their stuff)….oh, and teh boy’s father’s family. What about teh boy inviting friends? (initially he didn’t want to, none that he was particularly close to but after his parents mentioned it to a couple of friends of his, they did want to come) and so it grew. I’m not exactly sure who is all coming despite some requests for RSVPs, his paternal grandfather never responded either way) and other family drama on that side of teh boy’s family, including people coming despite never receiving invites. We will see how it goes, it’s on Saturday.

It did give me the boost to really start working on my house with a few truck loads of donations to the local thrift shop.  Last week the other host(teh boy’s father) encouraged me to change the venue at the last minute to my mother’s house. As expected, she loved the idea so she could take over (she can be a bit controlling at times). Frankly, I was stressed as it was and despite being angry at how I knew she would take over, I let her. I’ve got the food and the ceremony stuff figured out. There will be a few decorations and some activities but I don’t have to clean. I will still continue to clean as my partner and I have discussed hosting Christmas this year but it’s just been too much with everything else happening.

Well, that’s enough for now. How have you been?

two things crossed off my list

I celebrated my older sis’s graduation, summa cum laude. Good Job! That was less than 48 hours out of state and then back again for a week 2 hours north. I’m done with the in-class part of it, now it’s homework. It could have been worse. There was only one irritant but now I’m ready to start my summer.

From this point until mid August, I’m working 3 day weeks. I really need to start working on the living room because I’ve got lots to do. Sorting, organizing and shopping for a new couch, chairs and etc. I also purchased one of those body fit systems. Essentially you sync it with your computer and the online subscription. This allows you to track your caloric use and intake, activities and etc. I got it a week ago Thursday. I’ve been wearing it but not tracking the food because I didn’t have ready access to the computer.

Thursday I went geocaching, it was a multi-cache in the state park I was staying at and the sun was going down. I actually had to run to make sure I could make it to my truck while I could still see. I did make it but it was actually fun to run, yes…I was certainly out of breath but I wasn’t dying. I took some great pictures along the way.

I have trouble being motivated but today I’m going to clean out the camper and start doing laundry and maybe even sort some things.

How have you been?

It’s slow moving

Sometimes things are just hard to do….it’s been hard getting on track, there’s some sort of mental block. I’ve got to weed clothes and books. I wanted P to help me but she has such limited energy lately. This weekend I probably put too much on the schedule but I did get the refrigerator cleaned out and the downstairs bathroom completely wiped down. I also got laundry done and watched at least a couple of movies. I would recommend The Real Dirt on Farmer John and The Blindside – was just ok. We had a friend come spend the weekend too, this friend was celebrating her birthday but has had a really tough go of it for like the last six months. It was pleasant and this friend also helped me in the yard a bit.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I did make it through my day at work and I want to get back on track and ready to start weeding my clothes or books this week. I have to keep plugging along.