Why do MY feelings matter?

There is always a lot of discussion around people and their feelings. People will say: 'They're too sensitive', ' That's not how I saw that situation', 'Where do they get off saying that?'

Here is the deal:

Every living person who is a cognizant being has feelings. We all have time that we are happy, sad, envious, tense, bashful, embarrassed and the list goes on. Where do WE get off telling another person that their emotions are not relevant. When were we given the right to dismiss that person's feelings as silly or not important?

Somewhere along the line, we decided that we were judge and jury of our fellow man. We can tell them they are being silly, we can tell them their standards are set to high, we can tell them its never gonna happen, we can tell them anything to make them feel worse about what they are truly experiencing and quite frankly who in the hell needs to feel worse than they already do? When someone comes to you, if you are unsure of the role you are to play, ask them. Do you need an ear? DO you need a problem solver? Do you need advice? DO you need someone to be supportive? I have been known to tell people "I will listen, but if you ask for the truth, know that that is exactly what you are going get" I hold back no punches when asked for advice, I am known to be my friends biggest supporters. ( ie I will come get you, DO I need to go kick his ass, what will make you feel better, yes I am on my way with cupcakes and beer etc) I am the call you make at 4 am when you know that I have just finally gotten to sleep or am probably not even asleep yet. I am the one who will pick you up just to drive you around while you cry because HE is being an absolute idiot. I however, am also the same one who will remind you that we have discussed this a million times and my advice is still the same.

I am guilty of it myself. Thinking wow that person needs to get a grip or something equally dismissive about what they are feeling. I have also been on the receiving end of it for as long as I can remember. Grow a thicker skin, don't let others push you down, why does it matter what others think of you. Because, in short it does. We want and need to feel validated. We want someone to say 'wow, you are under a lot of stress, is there anything I can do?' we want to know that someone is willing to listen, unbiased and lend support as a friend. What we get in response is judgement and ridicule because as human as we are, we feel better about ourselves and out situation when we are making someone else seem smaller than us.

What I am trying to say is, be careful of the feelings of the next person you encounter. You never know, you might be the one listening, caring ear they have had in a long time, you might be the one who shows enough interest to stop something violent happening in that persons life, you might be the ray of light they have been begging God to send to them.

Complaining is a natural part of our existence. We all have something that we are not happy with. It is natural to want to express this displeasure to another, but the minute we cross that line and become judge, jury and executioner we have attempted to go face to face with a supreme law far beyond our understanding. I had a classmate back in 1991 who committed suicide because he felt he was in an impossible family situation and that he had no where to go and no one to turn to. There is not a week that goes by that I don't find myself helping a friend because you never know who is feeling the same way and who is looking to you for guidance.

Be careful of you impact on those around you. I have personally lived the domino effect of someone very close to me making decisions about my life without my input and dealing with the fallout when those decisions backfire. I have also been lucky enough to have friends who were there to support me and lift me up.

MY feelings matter because YOUR feelings matter.

Live Passionately

It seems like a simple concept. Live Passionately. But it's not necessarily true.

When we are young, we are impressionable. We are taught to have hopes and dreams, to go forth into the world for it is our oyster. We dream big and we live big until we run into other people. Those other people then shape who we are going to become and they can make or break those dreams we have for ourselves.

Case in point. Growing up I was "the weird kid". I don't know exactly what it was about me, but the other kids always treated me as the outsider. I was no less privileged then they were and yet someone gave them license to tease me unmercifully for whatever reason came to mind. Now mind you there were a few exceptions to the rule, but for the main part of growing up (elementary/junior high) I was living in complete hell.

I was the girl with the glasses, with the overbite and the great big buck teeth, who was chubby and who went through puberty at the age of 10 etc etc. I was not popular (as proven by the fifth grade 'you can put your desks together in groups and no one wanted to sit with me) or the opportunities to send your classmates carnations or candy canes depending on the time of the year. Mot of you reading this are thinking why the hell does this matter... because in the grand scheme of life, every action or inaction by another person can and inevitably does leave an imprint on us.

Recently, I moved back in with my mom because of certain situations in my life. Going through boxes and boxes of childhood memories and purging items that are long forgotten and not needed. (Being a packrat is part of my genetic makeup, something I fight with and sometimes it is a means of coping when things start going wrong) While going through this stuff I realized I had sketches and sketches of clothing. I loved the thought of decorating and anything artistic, but these were not "practical" dreams. As a child I rode horses. I spent so much time at the farm during my parents divorced I literally lived there every weekend. This was one more thing that kids made fun of me about and eventually as I got older I got away from it, because it was just one more thing that made me different. I was not going to be an artist, I was not going to ride horses in the Olympics and one by one my dreams were squeezed out of me.

I have always been intrigued by the law. Going through a box recently I found newspaper clippings as far back as the early 80's about crime. Then one of my older brothers went into the business of fighting crime and I felt that meant that this area was off limits to me. I had wanted to join the FBI.. I mean how cool right? In 1997-1998 it was made apparent that after a near fatal car accident that I would not be able to meet some of the physical requirements of such a demanding profession. My shoulder and neck have a disability rating which means as time goes on I will lose motion and gain arthritis. There is permanent nerve damage and then to top off that, a thyroid condition has left me fighting metabolic syndrome which can be everything from the under active thyroid, to the fluctuation of the blood pressure, to stroke and heart disease or infarction. This physically benches me from a lot of things, but mentally I am at the top of my game. I recently graduated Summa Cum Laude with my Bachelors degree in Criminal Justice. If only these institutions realized what a prized piece of real estate I am for them.

I love taking pictures. Wish I could afford a better camera set up to take up photography.
I still love horses and would love to get back to riding... what better adrenaline rush than rushing at a fence and feeling the power of the animal under you as you glide through the air?
I LOVE firearms. There is something sexy about holding something so dangerous in your hand and feeling the power as the bullet leaves the chamber and flies towards the target, the smell of gunpowder burning as the hot shell exits (usually hitting me in the face and leaving black powder or burn marks.. depending)
I love writing my thoughts to share with others. Wish I could get paid for it and don't do it nearly enough ( ask me why, although that's another whole blog post in itself)

What my point here is that through a series of events, I allowed others (referred to as them) to make me feel small and inconsequential. I allowed them to deviate my plans for my own life, I allowed them to make me feel poorly about myself, I allowed them to steal my dreams and my future.

If there is one thing that I have learned in recent months and through the recent events in my life is that I need to reclaim these areas of my life for myself. I have given too much of myself to others hoping that they would help complete me. What a bunch of horseshit right? I give of myself until I was broken inside. The sad part is that these kids from my past don't remember the horrible hurtful things that they did. They don't know how they affected me. Maybe they never will, but I have made peace with it. I have acknowledged it. I have forgiven them because children are just a product of what they have learned from those in their lives.

Make sense? There comes a time in your life when it is time to reclaim your dreams and let go of what others think of you because in the end, those that have treated you badly and discarded you long ago don't care about the footprints they have left on your soul.

When you fall off the horse, you get back on and trust me... in my career of riding horses I have fallen, been thrown, been rolled on, been kicked, been bitten in my armpit and thrown across a room.... just to name a few... All you need to do is get up one more time than life throws you down to win, so get up, dust off and hang on because each ride is going to be different and it is never over until the horse is untacked and back in their stall.

Never, Ever, Ever give up