Vortex Surfers

by eeabee

I thought I’d share this poem by Austin of The People Behind My Eyes, especially because of the way I think it captures how deeply early-life pain wounds us and just how hard it is to live with.

What really sucks is that the person who’s been hurt is left holding the burden, the burden which belongs somewhere else.

This is when I like to say that the person who does the hurting loses a bit of their soul, that there is a cost to them too. I want to say that there is some comfort in at least not having to be like them. Cold comfort. I kind of like cold comfort though, and it’s more than nothing.

And there’s the warm stuff out there too–like in the way we can share our pain with each other. Love. Which not-so-subtly segues into another link–to ama’s post called love and pain.

[I posted this on my blog, sparks in the night, but it's got a link that might be of interest for us too.]

The Mind is a Dangerous Place to be Alone (or at least mine is)

Big Fat Baby Crybaby Whiny Needy Baby.  These are the kinds of things my brain tells me about myself sometimes.  And I do cry and need things (this needing business is a huge point of crushing shame for me so it’s hard to even say).  But even I can see that these labels are a tad extreme.

Rising Rainbow replied to a comment of mind in a thoughtful and helpful post that I’m linking to here.  Maybe it’s a tiny bit because she said nice things about my comment, but mostly it’s because what she said was clarifying and also affirming for me.  I think it’s sometimes quite hard for me not to discount how I feel about things (any/all of them, really)–it’s such an ingrained reflex–but others’ words can help a lot to counter what my own brain tells me.

So let’s try this:

Big Fat Baby Crybaby Whiny Needy Baby.

Person.  Regular old human being, plain and simple.