Tag: marriage

• How they teetered.

  Being in a marriage is like one long teeter-totter ride, where it takes finesse and decorum to keep it going gently up and down and up and down, a balanced movement.

  Do you remember how you can gain control in two ways on the teeter-totter? By moving your weight you can keep a person up in the air, unable to get down or by getting off he will be slammed into the ground.

  It seems that one person can take over control of the teeter-totter and in doing so gains control over the person on the other end and has the power to restore the momentum or stop it.

  We have many teeter-totter games going with all of our relationships, and we can feel or know when the momentum changes, when they have more power over us than we ourselves, and in that moment we have choices to make.

  In my past co-dependent teeter-totter rides, I was always on the end with no power, either waiting to be slammed into the ground or up in the air unable to move, and the person in charge, wasn’t concerned about me, but rather did what they needed to do, while I was along for the bumpy ride. Somehow it never occurred to me to get off to and not go back.

  We truly are in charge of how we feel in relationships, how their actions affect us on the other end, will it plummet us to the ground and hurt us, or will it leave us powerless.

  Learning how to teeter-totter in a relationship is key to having a beautiful friendship, to even know you have the power to slam them down, but don’t.

  As we teeter up and down, as we ride along with a gentle rhythm, every now and then something lands upon our teeter-totter that throws us off balance.

  A new experience has been added to our routine, and how do we balance ourselves back out?

  What I do know for certain is that a marriage or a friendship isn’t a flat line, a secure steady beam, but an up and down living breathing growing life like organism.

  They are all mysteries whose ending we don’t know.

  We can’t know what will happen to make the other leave, or what will make them use their power to manipulate and control or abuse, or what will make them just sit when it is their turn to push off.

  I am all I can be sure of.

  I know when I will stay on and when I get off.

  I have learned what it feels like to be in the air with out power and slammed down in hurt, and I also know what to do to stop those feelings. I get off.

  What is the old line, “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”!

  It isn’t so much about knowing who to teeter with but knowing when to get off.

  What is very interesting to me is that they banned the teeter-totters from school play grounds, they were too dangerous, and in fact they were great tools in getting to know someone, you could tell how kind they were by how they teetered.

  March 14, 2011

  abusive, individual, marriage, ownership, playgrounds, power, powerless, relationships, teeter-totters, trust

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• How they teetered.

  Being in a marriage is like one long teeter-totter ride, where it takes finesse and decorum to keep it going gently up and down and up and down, a balanced movement.

  Do you remember how you can gain control in two ways on the teeter-totter? By moving your weight you can keep a person up in the air, unable to get down or by getting off he will be slammed into the ground.

  It seems that one person can take over control of the teeter-totter and in doing so gains control over the person on the other end and has the power to restore the momentum or stop it.

  We have many teeter-totter games going with all of our relationships, and we can feel or know when the momentum changes, when they have more power over us than we ourselves, and in that moment we have choices to make.

  In my past co-dependent teeter-totter rides, I was always on the end with no power, either waiting to be slammed into the ground or up in the air unable to move, and the person in charge, wasn’t concerned about me, but rather did what they needed to do, while I was along for the bumpy ride. Somehow it never occurred to me to get off to and not go back.

  We truly are in charge of how we feel in relationships, how their actions affect us on the other end, will it plummet us to the ground and hurt us, or will it leave us powerless.

  Learning how to teeter-totter in a relationship is key to having a beautiful friendship, to even know you have the power to slam them down, but don’t.

  As we teeter up and down, as we ride along with a gentle rhythm, every now and then something lands upon our teeter-totter that throws us off balance.

  A new experience has been added to our routine, and how do we balance ourselves back out?

  What I do know for certain is that a marriage or a friendship isn’t a flat line, a secure steady beam, but an up and down living breathing growing life like organism.

  They are all mysteries whose ending we don’t know.

  We can’t know what will happen to make the other leave, or what will make them use their power to manipulate and control or abuse, or what will make them just sit when it is their turn to push off.

  I am all I can be sure of.

  I know when I will stay on and when I get off.

  I have learned what it feels like to be in the air with out power and slammed down in hurt, and I also know what to do to stop those feelings. I get off.

  What is the old line, “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”!

  It isn’t so much about knowing who to teeter with but knowing when to get off.

  What is very interesting to me is that they banned the teeter-totters from school play grounds, they were too dangerous, and in fact they were great tools in getting to know someone, you could tell how kind they were by how they teetered.

  March 14, 2011

  abusive, individual, marriage, ownership, playgrounds, power, powerless, relationships, teeter-totters, trust

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• A place for me to stand.

  The stressful thought is if my husband does nothing or if my husband supports friends of this cheating husband, my daughter will not be able to find her integrity, that he is a sign post of ambivalence.

  I looked up the meaning of ambivalence.

  1. conflict of ideas or attitudes: the presence of two opposing ideas, attitudes, or emotions at the same time
  2. uncertainty: a feeling of uncertainty about something due to a mental conflict
  The coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings, such as love and hate, toward a person …

  Do you know, I did not know that ambivalence was uncertainty or the coexistence of opposing attitudes.

  I thought ambivalence was more like indifference or a knowing and not caring.

  Ambivalence is exactly what my husband shows, conflicting ideas or attitudes.

  And his ambivalence has me feeling uneasy and even my viewing him in a new light has put me in my own place of ambivalence towards him.

  I no longer am sure of my feelings towards him.

  My ambivalence is showing.

  It seems we feel ambivalent when there are conflicting positions both within him as well as between him and I or visa versa, ambivalence abounds.

  We can’t know how this all ends, for it all depends on what we pick and what we have to compromise on and what is being asked in front of our integrity.

  I believe it is easier to sit with ambivalence, undecided, unknowing, than it is to sit with knowing and not caring.

  I understand the wrestling match that can go on for a long while, for we continually compromise small things in order to get along, but there does seem to come a time when all bets are off, when the relationship is asking too much or we lose too much to maintain that relationship.

  My husband’s experiences in life hasn’t required him to divorce folks who were asking him to chose his innocence over the man who abused him.

  And in fact my learning how to walk away from an abusive family has strengthened my knowing that relationships can cost you your self. And sometimes in order to save yourself, you have to walk away.

  We have lived with much ambivalence in the past 6 years for sure, in fact we learned to not promise love, but I love you today, for we understood that love is an individual and personal thing, and there does come a time, when we part to save ourselves.

  I can’t predict the outcome, but I can see the ambivalence line waving in front of us, the line is there and which side will we pick?

  While my husband sits in ambivalence, I have already chosen my side, and I am not sure what or if I will be asked to compromise or if I will know it is time to go.

  Interesting to know that I am not anxious or wanting to control, but that I am feeling the feelings of ambivalence.

  The feelings of unknowing which way this will go.

  And if our relationship can handle the outcome, but what I do know is that so far I have always been further ahead leaving and maintaining my sense of integrity.

  My ambivalence is he being ambivalent and not choosing sides, but you know, this is his greatest feature, to slide and not chose sides.

  Is that possible to not have to pick?

  To live in ambivalence?

  I used to live there, so I guess it is, until the Universe asks you to choose, you can live in both places, get along with both sides, float over the line unless there are repercussions, no harm is done.

  Maybe he never has to pick.
  Maybe that isn’t his way, but it appears to be mine.

  I am grateful I am no longer lost in ambivalence, I am happy I found a place for me to stand.

  March 13, 2011

  abuse, ambivalence, compromise, divorce, knowing, leaving, marriage, relationships, sliding from side, staying, to side, truth

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• With your loving support.

  My old definition of marriage was the joining of two people of like minds, and perhaps friendship held this too, but that you both viewed life from the same space and often responded to life with the same footsteps.

  Your histories and life pathways joined together for you shared similarities.

  I now find myself yoked to a man who hasn’t lived life as I have, hasn’t had to walk the same footsteps I have had to take, and we are dissimilar in the way we now respond to life as it happens.

  The yoke that held us close together didn’t matter, for we were the heading in the same direction, speaking in the same language and doing the same response.

  Now it feels odd, like our yoke is gone, and we are two separated individuals doing our own thing.

  Great freedom to be who you are, doing what you love, honoring your differences etc…all good and well, until your differences become a weak spot when combined.

  I have zero tolerance for abuse and he hasn’t been affected by it like I have so, he truly doesn’t grasp the affects, nor will he; his loving trusting belief in others is a weakness when you are dealing with abuse.

  Abuse and its manipulators can get away with what they do, for they bank on your trust and your kind nature and that you won’t hold them accountable for what they do.

  They rely on you seeing their behavior as an anomaly in their otherwise normal world.

  What we fail to appreciate is that the anomaly is the truth and all the ‘normal’ behavior is a shield to hide it.

  What I trust now, is what do they do when they are asked to stand with or against abuse, no matter who it is that is doing the abusing, be it a friend, a spouse, a father, mother, sister, brother, is who they are.

  I see who you are by who you support.

  The greatest weakness and hole that a perpetrator, or even an abusive man hurting a woman, uses is that we trust and believe that they are more good than bad.

  We want to believe that they just had a moment of confusion, a slip of control, a ‘moment of weakness’ but that all in all, they are good people.

  If we all stopped and cut our old opinions up the moment abuse entered the picture, we would save a lot of little children and even young adults who find themselves in a relationship that is detrimental to their well being.

  It is the stopping and not continuing that is the key.

  When people show you who they are, believe them. Damn it, Believe them.

  It seems so easy, so simple and yet time and time again, abuse slips by attached to the one you love.

  Attached to the one you trust.

  Attached to the old relationship, the kind man, the loving brother, abuse is attached to them, and you just refuse to see it.

  Oh, yeah…sometimes you see it but you will not toss out the old relationship for one little act of abuse.

  Or for one little moment of supporting abuse…we overlook the supporting for they too may be someone we love and trust.

  It is this blind trusting faith in a person who has abuse attached to them that keeps this cycle going, the legacy of abuse is mostly to blame on the ones who love and trust the ones with abuse attached to them.

  I never knew that abuse thrived more because of the love and trust than it did because of the driving desire of the perpetrator.

  In my one experience with abuse, if you don’t see the abuse attached to your loved one, and you continue to have relationships with him, then abuse gets attached to you.

  You are now the carrier, the supporter and the accomplice.

  The ‘love, trust and belief’ that my family had in my father has allowed him to be a free man.

  Each one of them who didn’t not see the abuse attached to him, now are carrying his legacy forward, in love, trust and faith in a man who gives abuse back.

  So, each time I am faced with a similar type event in my world, where abuse is attached. I see abuse and let the rest fall away.

  Again, the greatest supporter of abuse is love, trust and faith.

  Imagine?

  And yet the schools are teaching, good touch bad touch.
  Stop.

  They need to teach that we have the right to revoke friendship, love and trust, we can withdraw it at any time.

  So, my loving trusting and believing husband and I are on the opposite sides of this and my behavior seems harsh and so narrow minded. And it is.

  What I needed the most as a little girl was for someone to see the abuse, to act with the abuse and to see me and not see the man who clothed and fed 14 children, a lumberman, a hardworking, not asking for anything man.

  I needed one eye to see me, one ear to hear me, one hand to hold me, and to let him go. Instead all eyes, ears and hands reached out to him and they let me go.

  Me the abused child.

  Refusing to let his image of goodness die, instead they let me fade away, the one ‘insane’ voice against many.

  The majority wins; abuse will prevail…with your loving support.

  (What happens when in one home you have opposing voices?)

  March 5, 2011

  abuse, childhood, components, evil, goodness, keep, key, love, marriage, opposing, parents, sexual, thriving, to, trust, viewpoints

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• Go with the Flow.

  United we stand united we fall, divided we stand divided we fall…are two phrases that ran around in my head as I laid my weary brain down to sleep.

  There has been a humming of difference going on in our home, a vague and nagging two party rule.

  This split difference seemed to be two strong individuals doing what they felt was right for them and it didn’t affect the atmosphere within our home, for our individual expressions were directed to those who did not live with us.

  Sure we had awkward uncomfortable moments, but they would only arrive when say a party was to be attended and we both didn’t go…yet we both could please ourselves.

  Me by staying home, and them by going, two drastically different responses to one event.

  It seemed to be this great wide-open free space of self-expression and allowing, and it was.

  What happens if our differences fall into our own home, where a person in our relationship changes and our responses are different?

  It became crystal clear to me that we were at a cross roads, both individually and as a team.

  The individual harmony of our home is tipping and sliding and churning over the way we both deal with actions that go against our moral code.

  My daughter’s changing actions have set in motion and are displaying our stark contrasts, where we are both sitting in a very tight spot.

  A spot that we both drew comfort in and it allowed us to be ourselves, we may be asked to leave.

  What we are being asked is to stand with that sentiment or to reverse and head in another direction; it truly is a turning point in our relationship.

  If my daughter continues in the direction she seems to be heading in, she will also change the direction our marriage, it will be the trigger that goes off and we will then be asked to change as well.

  She is the key that will turn this all.

  Our response is the echo and the reply and what I know from past behaviors, we answered differently.

  Can we form as a team and come up with an answering response that will honor both of us?

  I see the looming bends in our river, the rapids that will require each of us to hold to our course and see not one boat called family, but three different canoes.

  I see how the current in each of our lives may lead us down separated journeys, how the potential for parting is strong, how our differences become stronger not weaker, how their forces propel and repel.

  Within each of us lies our sense of self, our value and self worth and that alone is the motor that steers our choices, speaks our voices, and their clamoring for individual power drowns out the unity we once had.

  It isn’t the direction that they are heading in, or the rapids beneath them, but rather the integrity within each boat, the honesty and character that directs these boats in their direction.

  It seems that the Universe pulls them toward like-minded boats; our separation isn’t what the heart wants, but rather what our actions lead.

  The freedom that I lovingly gave that had us all happy in our separate boats, is now coming to bear.

  There is a fork in the river now, a change in the stream, a curve that bends their lives from mine… what I can’t know for sure is will they take the curve or change something inside of them.

  It isn’t me, but the river of life and how you change or it changes you.

  At the end of the day, I am a lady of my own character who has no choice but to follow where it leads…reality wins only but 100% of the time, it is futile for me set my canoe against it.

  This is what happened last time, six years ago, where my canoe didn’t go where the rest all went, where the river bent, and my character simply couldn’t go with the flow against the river of reality.

  I see my daughter’s canoe swirling lost in the struggle against the rivers flow, not wanting what is and lying to make it right, twirling in the swirling waters going against life’s truth, trying to make something right out of what is wrong.

  I have seen this branch of the river before, I have watched as many family members’ canoes got stuck in the madness of seeing an illusion and following.

  My shouts fall short and are lost in the waters of time that race by, telling them it is useless to fight what is.

  Now this time, the illusion has my daughter in its grips, the fantasy that is but a mirage above the river, and I can’t seem to break the spell that will plunge her back into seeing what is.

  And I can’t know the strength and conviction she has with this mirage and how far will she follow it and for how long, and if she does, what will my husband do?

  Will his canoe ride with her?

  Will his words to fall short?

  Will she hear us as we shout; will she trust the mirage or her old reality?

  Where will these three canoes go? Which ones will fight reality and who will go with the flow?

  March 2, 2011

  Character, choices, deceit, differences, fooling, honesty, lies, life, marriage, reality, river, self, struggle, time

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• That Loving Feeling?

  “Love Must Be Tough” by Dr. James C. Dobson, is a book a friend recommended for my daughter to read, by I am reading it first.

  In chapter three called, “The Tender Trap” he states first the three conclusions he has so far.

  1. Marital (and premarital) conflict typically involves one partner who cares a great deal about the relationship and the other who is much more independent and secure.
  2. As a love affair begins to deteriorate, the vulnerable partner is inclined to panic. Characteristic responses include grieving, lashing out, begging, pleading, grabbing, and holding; or the reaction may be just the opposite, involving appeasement and passivity.
  3. While these reactions are natural and understandable, they are rarely successful in repairing the damage that has occurred. In fact, such reactions are usually counterproductive, destroying the relationship the threatened person is trying so desperately to preserve.

  In the previous chapter we explored the fears and sorrows reverberating in the mind of the rejected partner. Now let’s take the next step by looking at the husband or wife who is drifting away. In order to pull that person back from the brink, we need to understand the forces operating within. What do you believe motivates a man or woman to terminate a marriage? What thoughts are typical of one who rejects the unconditional love offered at home? What secrets lie deep within the psyche of the woman who has an affair with her boss, or the man who chases the office flirt? Is the desire for a new thrill the only enticement, or the more basic motivators operating below the surface?

  It has been my observation that the lust for forbidden fruit is often incidental to the real cause of marital decay. Long before any decisions is made to ‘fool around’ or walk out on a partner, something basic has begun to change in the relationship. Many books on this subject lay the blame on the failure to communicate, but I disagree. The inability to talk to one another is a symptom of a deeper problem, but not the cause itself. The critical element is the way one spouse begins to perceive the other and their lives together. It is a subtle thing at first, often occurring without either partner being aware of the slippage. But as time passes, one individual begins to feel trapped. That’s the key word, Trapped….

  This intense desire to escape from a marriage can occur on the first day of the honeymoon or fifty years thereafter. For men, it is the primary ingredient of a midlife crisis. But these feelings of constraint are by no means unique to men. For women, they usually (but not always) occur in response to an unromantic relationship that refuses to be energized. A wife may ‘reach’ for her husband for years, beg for his attention, nag him when he fails to notice, and the scream to herself, “Help! I’m suffocating in this loveless marriage! Somebody get me out!”

  How sad it is, furthermore, that this trapped partner who is fighting an impulse to run is rapidly sinking deeper and deeper into a form of marital quicksand. Why? Because the more he struggles to gain his freedom (or even secure a little breathing room), the more his panic stricken spouse clutches his neck. Even the fluctuating emotions of the rejected party are interpreted as attempts to grab and hold.
  For example:

  The response of grief: “Please don’t hurt me. Come and meet my needs.”

  The response of anger: “Get back in line, stupid! How dare you try and walk out on me!”

  The response of blame: “How could you do this to me and the kids?”

  The response of appeasement: “Name it and you can have it. Just don’t leave me.”

  The response of servility (the doormat): “No matter what you do, I’ll go on smiling ‘cause you’re mine.”

  The common denominator between these varied responses is one of entrapment. They each restrict the freedom of the less interested party. For someone in the trapped syndrome, love then becomes an obligation rather than an incredibly wonderful privilege. Perhaps it is now obvious why the natural reaction of the panic-stricken spouse typically drives the cool partner farther away; the more he pulls back from the relationship to gain desired space, the tighter the bonds close around him. He sometimes becomes almost claustrophobic in his desperate attempts to breathe – to get the noose off his neck. He may even resort to infidelity as a vehicle to escape from his partner’s clutches.” Dr. Dobson

  How affirming this book is to my experience. He is explaining how the trapped feelings don’t work, while I am experiencing the joys of the free-range children and I love you today.

  What is sad though, is that the ‘other woman’ is used to escape, an excuse to leave the place he feels trapped.

  And I bet that she feels like freedom to him, but the other woman is actually a bridge across the moat to freedom, but not what he is seeking. He wants his freedom and he will use her to get it.

  She is being used to set him free from a marriage he feels trapped in. Incredible.

  Of course he has this death like grip on her, for she is the answer or his way out!

  And I can see how she does feel like she is ‘saving him’ or rescuing him from a ‘broken marriage’ etc, for she is saving him, but little does she know, it isn’t so much about her, but a way out.

  Not sure if my daughter will read this book, but it has given me a clear view of the dynamics she is in.

  Freedom or trapped what gives you that loving feeling?

  February 12, 2011

  Dr. James C. Dobson, escape, feelings, freedom, Love must be tough, marriage, other woman, seeking, trapped

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• You Break the Chain

  Grand Traverse Women Magazine was asking about articles on Motherhood, and immediately I felt that I had a unique perspective in how my mothering changed as I unraveled my life of abuse.

  It is like my children had two different mothers without going through a divorce, the changes in how I mothered are totally opposite.

  The woman in motherhood is the key component, how she is built and operates, is how she will mother.

  Who I was as a woman is where I began mothering from and I brought to mothering, the skills I learned from my mother, a legacy that flows into us like breath.

  Mothering doesn’t change us; we bring to the child who we are.

  All of our past lands upon the child in the way we relate to them and how we expect them to relate to us, we began building a relationship.

  A relationship of dysfunction or one with healthy boundaries, and it all depends upon the adult.

  Whether this is motherhood or fatherhood, the adult is the operator of the relationship and how they conduct themselves is how healthy or unhealthy the child will grow.

  My father was a pedophile and I one of his victims. My mother stayed married to this man for 49 years, this is the pattern I had to follow.

  I mothered as she did, until at 46, I found out that my childhood of no memories was due to the fact I was abused, I then had to re-look at who I was and how I lived.

  An adult woman of abuse is very co-dependent, she expects her children to make her shine, to make her happy to live for her.
  A woman who is clear and separated from abuse knows her children are free to live and be themselves, and will monitor but not control their lives.

  The dysfunctional co-dependent way of mothering is hell to do and tragically damages children to the extent that they don’t know how to live a life separated from others, they are groomed to be parasites.

  Living off of what makes others happy.

  My children, all four, were set free the moment I knew I was abused and that I had serious work to do on getting me back to ‘normal’.

  I allowed them to be themselves and we worked on separating them from me and my demands and my wishes and my dreams.

  As I separated myself from my mother I then could allow my children to be separate from me.

  Mothering is to nurture and to love and respect WHO they are and not hijack their lives to become arm candy and self-esteem boosters.

  My children were an extension of me, not individuals.

  The more I became an individual the more I could allow them to be individuals too.

  Motherhood to me now isn’t so scary, for I would now allow them to enter onto this planet as wonderful curious loving souls and let them explore and learn to be who they were meant to be.

  My children experienced two kinds of mothers within one woman; the changes in our home are extreme.

  My rages and violent screaming rampages have disappeared and in its place a woman who seeks to find a peaceful solution, a way to co-habitat that honors all who live here.

  Motherhood is only as happy as our childhood…the legacy will repeat itself unless and until you break the chain.

  February 8, 2011

  abuse, childhood, children, Grand Traverse Woman Magazine, legacy, marriage, motherhood, mothers, pedophile, women

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• Celebrate your differences!

  What would be good advice to offer a new couple who just got married, what pitfalls or blind corners do you have to warn them of, when does reality overtake love, and what then is the best thing to do?

  In my experience of 23 years I would have to say, is to be truthful with your self first and then with him/her.

  That if you give away parts of your self in little lies, soon the you they fell in love with will be gone.

  And it is in the most scariest of situations where there is the most at stake, it is then you need to be honestly truthful.

  By honoring your self first, the other person will always be with your most authentic self.

  While it may seem kind to bow down to the comfort or spare a feeling of hurt, what you are really doing is lining your relationship with lies.

  I had heard Dr. Phil say yesterday to different couples who were either too comfortable (no spice) or those in a power struggle of control, etc…that you are either contaminating the relationship or adding to its strength (I forgot what word he used, but meaning adding to its integrity).

  In each situation, all you are responsible is for your self.

  The union of two people will be only as strong as the weakest individual.

  A marriage made in heaven is where one is strong the other is weak and visa versa.

  If we were exactly alike, there would be no need for the other.

  Celebrate your differences!

  October 15, 2010

  differences, integrity, kindness, lies, love, marriage, truthful

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