Oh, it’s been a long time. I’m having the urge to apologize, though I’m not sure that’s what’s needed. Perhaps just an honest expression of missing this secret blog world and having known, this past month of being very very checked out, that I would return. Hello, friends.
There’s the path again…
(Aside: Bussokuseki’s beautiful poem “Almost Nine” this morning kind of slayed me. Go read it.)
Around the time I last posted, I had a personal revelation that I think has contributed to my silence. Around the devastating house business, I felt that no one could say the right thing. I am so grateful for the kind support of friends and readers–thank you, Momaste, Laal, and others–but it felt kind of impossible to explain to people exactly why I felt so utterly destroyed for a while there. Perhaps consequently, what I kept getting back was well-meaning but sort of not very helpful. And that was hard.
And M said to me, at one point, “You know, you don’t have to tell everyone everything.”
I’ve always been an over-sharer; that’s who I am. But I realized that some of that urge to confess everything comes from a place of feeling undeserved, like, I don’t deserve my feelings unless they’re validated, so I tell everyone in hopes of being validated–or I feel that if I’m keeping something to myself I’m somehow being selfish, closeted, untrue. I feel guilty for wanting a secret. It was a very strange revelation to have about myself, and it occurred to me that I really don’t have to share anything I don’t want to. There is power in keeping things to myself. I don’t need to justify what I’m feeling. I mean, right?
This reminds me of an earlier post of mine about silence, when I first started thinking about this stuff many months ago. Silence is feeling very powerful to me right now. And maybe I just didn’t feel like writing about the big life challenges I’m facing right now this past month. I’m sure I will, again; but not now.
I’ve found a women’s meditation group at a famous meditation center in Marin County, and I’ve been twice now. It has been incredibly powerful. It’s during the week, so it’s me and the retired ladies and a few others with flexible schedules, and I’m consciously trying to work my grading and teaching into other time blocks so I can go. In fact, I’m looking forward to it already!
Onward,
BB
Becoming Buddhist 
April 13, 2014 at 12:10 pm
I’ve been absent myself a lot lately. It has been all I can do to post a single poem or two each month; I feel as if a month went by completely, I might lose my grip on pen and paper altogether.
I have always been an under-sharer myself, and perhaps that is why feel compelled to keep it up. What old habits creep back if I don’t?
So happy to hear about your meditation group…I underestimated to importance of sangha for far too long.
And as always, you are too kind to refer to a poem of mine. Wonderful that it resonated for you.
Blessings, friend~
April 14, 2014 at 11:39 am
Thank you, friend! I do love your writing.