cabbitzilla: (Shadow)
cabbitzilla ([personal profile] cabbitzilla) wrote2004-12-19 02:34 am

(no subject)

in the end, there's only me
mourning the things not meant to be
a long, long road I have traveled
and I have found what I was not looking for
Tempest - Early Winter


The house is done, or close enough that it might as well be. Left in the house is the oversized house fan, the waterbed frame, and a chair that Megan and I both loathe. And the tattered remains of my life.

It was built on a lie, a lie I told to myself years ago, over and over again, until I forgot it was fiction and truly believed it. But it was mine... it was, in a twisted form, me. And standing in the house, watching the last packable bits march out the door... the full measure of the failure that lie had set me up for finally clicked. I ended up looking back up the channel, and counting the costs of that deception.

My health. My mobility. Portions of my mind, chunks of memory, entire skillsets. My career, which had become a Holy Crusade that both Crys and Kelly tried to warn me about. My car, the Mercury that I loved and babied... that even now sits in the driveway of the house in Glen Burnie. And then the walls I'd so carefully built crashed to the ground... I'd lost 'Don', and with it went much of my strength of personality. My marriage died as the echoes of the wall's collapse were still being felt, lingering only as a shared burden between us. B5MUSH, long a treasured source of magic and storytelling, fell due to neglect on my part. Packing efforts turned up treasured items destroyed or damaged beyond repair. And now the house is gone as well.

The 'gains' are a much shorter list, but it includes a much more accurate view of who and what I am... and who my true friends are. The number is far smaller than I'd guessed even in my most pessimistic mood... but the value of each is the equivalent of four or five 'normal' people. Those friends have become family, and are precious and dear to me.

The blame for it all rests solely at my feet, a web of interconnected failures that shared a common foundation in self delusion; when the center fails, the edges cannot hold. I wonder that -any- person is worth salvaging when they've worked so hard to make a lie become truth... and I wonder, in the quiet moments, if this is redemption or damnation.

*sighs and shakes her head* And there's the sarcastic little voice in the back of my mind that says it's neither... that it's the angst and melodrama of an aging queen, making mountains out of mole hills. Right this second, the only thing I'm sure of is that I'm crying... and that the feelings of failure are damned near overwhelming. I... don't know what to do... all I see is to just try and keep moving, and hope that things sort out...

[identity profile] stardansr.livejournal.com 2004-12-19 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
((Hugs))

[identity profile] gendou.livejournal.com 2004-12-19 11:37 am (UTC)(link)
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have's mine own.

- Prospero, The Tempest

[identity profile] rowandoll.livejournal.com 2004-12-19 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Stop it. You know what I'm talking about and stop it now.

*holds you*

Hrm

[identity profile] lys1022.livejournal.com 2004-12-19 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Firstly, the lie that began it all did not originate with you. So you can hardly be blamed for EVERYTHING that followed. Did you make some bad decisions? Sure. Don't we all? Life isn't meant to be a walk through the gardens, because if it were, we wouldn't learn anything from it. You've had a harder ride than most, but you're still here and standing.

I hear you, you're saying "Standing? Barely! More like crawling desperately!" Yes, and? You're still here, you have people who DO love you and care for you, and you know that the lies were there and the consequences of perpetuating them. Now you're free, dear.

You are free of the house.

You are free of the lies.

You are free to look back at the wreckage, salvage the few shining gems that remain, and then free to move forward.

You are free to shake the last of the encumbrances and move on to becoming the person that YOU want to be. I know, I know, but I'm speaking more of an internal adjustment than an external one. It doesn't matter WHAT you look like, dear, if your head is where it needs to be. *wry smile* As many of my friends continue to try and pound into MY head over and over again.

There's a lot to mourn, and healing comes from mourning. Just don't let the mourning go on too long, Sis. Mourn, look back, then face forward and move into what will only become a brighter and brighter future.

Love you much. *HUG*

[identity profile] ginkage.livejournal.com 2004-12-19 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
When all in hindsight seems chaos
A mass of ruin left forever behind
One sees the pieces left in the wake
And rebuilds a new whole for the future

No one ever said looking back is easy, nor looking forward, but it will be better. Sometimes that...hope/faith/belief is hard to grasp, but it does exist.

*hug*