were made for blogging. There is just something about being wide awake in the middle of the night that makes me want to write; makes me want to share things that mayhaps I wouldn’t share on a normal day. I imagine many bloggers have an agenda that they follow religiously. I have no agenda. The filter between my brain and mouth fails with distressing regularity and ergo, the often off the wall, “what in the world was she thinking” blog posts become reality. This night is no different from my life on a daily basis, a life that is filled with inconsistencies, confusions and ethereally beautiful moments. Therein lies the problem; the differences are not easily discerned until it is too late to turn back..
I have so many thoughts going through my mind right now that focusing on simply one is nearly impossible. I am trying ardently to deal with, what I truly believe to be the answer to a prayer that I have been praying about. The answer was not what I wanted to hear and not the outcome I had hoped for. Nonetheless, I did ask for an answer and was given one. So there you have it. Question asked, answer given. Whether or not I am pleased with the answer is irrelevant because it is not my will I am working to achieve, but my Father God’s. He sees the big picture, the whole thing, all of the edges and I am left in the moment I am in at the particular moment I am in.
That’s the thing about praying. I ask for guidance and answers and, while I should be leaping with joy when I receive an answer from God, I find that sometimes, despite my best efforts, I question Him. In this particular instance, I realize that I have been through a very similar scenario four times at this point and all four times, the outcome has been the same. I am disturbed by this. Not by God’s infinite wisdom, but that I am so predictable that I would take the same path, though with different beginnings, that lead to the exact same outcome. One that offers no closure, but simply an abrupt end to what was thought to be a wonderful thing.
Life is confusing at times. Though it has moments that are so beautiful, it hurts my heart to look at them, I find that, for the most part, I am looking for answers to questions that have no answers. It seems that the questions, more often than not, are riddles and I have never been good at riddles. I threaten, in my mind, to simply write people off and never try to correspond with them again, and then my conscious click in. There are times when I wish I didn’t have a conscience and could think and do whatever I wanted to whomever I wanted to do it to and not have a moment of guilt over it. But were I to go there, then Satan would be as happy as a witch in a broom factory.
Throughout my life, I can think of four distinct relationships that have ended without closure. Without reason or explanation. Four distinct experiences that have, for reasons unknown, ended the same way. I am certain that there is a lesson to be learned here, but obviously, I have not yet learned it. I trust too much, share too much, give too much and then wonder why I am left standing, empty handed and alone, at the end of the day. One would think that after so many experiences that end the same, there would be a red flag; a warning sign or some other type of blinking light that says “you don’t want to go there again”. But there isn’t.
I am too trusting, too gullible, to easily manipulated. I know this, but it doesn’t seem to help me learn from past experiences. It is difficult, though, when each experience starts differently. It is impossible to know, at the beginning, how it will end. It doesn’t make being too trusting, too gullible and too easily manipulated any easier to swallow at the end of the day. It leads to disappointment, as much in the deceiver as in myself and adds layers to the wall that has to be rebuilt in order to preserve my sanity.
Friends come and go. Some are much better at deceiving than others and, as I said earlier, being a gullible sort, I fall for the “we have so much in common”, “we are cut from the same cloth”, “I feel like I’ve known you forever” line. I think that, in the future, I will be oblivious to this line of thinking. I don’t like being used and am saddened that I have, once again, been simply a sounding board and ego booster that, once the course has been run, am nothing more than a blast of wind on a summer day.
I wish I had the answers. I wish I had the knowledge that is not revealed to me. I live my life walking on faith and sometimes, the faith is misguided. That is no-one’s fault but my own. I am gullible and I do have a seeking heart. That makes me an easy mark for those who’s only agenda is lifting themselves to a higher level. I don’t hold it against them as they are doing what they do. I hold it against myself for enabling them and allowing my thoughts and feelings to feed the fire and come to the realization that they thrive on this enabling and then forget me completely.
It is an humbling experience to learn that, even though I should know better, I still fall into the same traps of wanting to be a part of something important, something beautiful, something exceptional only to realize that I was only a stepping stone.
I want to be angry, but that is not in my nature. I will cry and I will berate myself for being a fool, but know that, most likely, I will repeat the same cycle over and over again. The complexity of my heart and mind is, in reality, simply too much for most people to comprehend and so they just pretend that I never existed.
I don’t mind it, overmuch, but with each transparency, I learn that I will likely never learn. Such is the nature of my life. But I’m ok with that. I figure if I walk through a door with my eyes wide open then any surprises that come up are on me for, when I walked thorough the door, I did it willingly. In my mind, I go to places unknown, with no stresses or pain; no insecurities or moments of foolishness, but only the beauty of God’s Amazing Grace. I am blessed even when I feel more like I’m being punished. No one can ever punish me as much as I punish myself and as long as I take it, it will continue. Praying for the strength to break the cycle, even when it hurts. I am me. I am Gina. I am not a doormat. I will work each day to remind myself of these basic facts.
A Photographer's Heart 