Posted in beginnings, borderline personality disorder, family, gray area, memoir, self-discovery, tainted childhood, tagged being vulnerable, borderline personality disorder, dysfunctional family, emotions, freedom, growing, inner child, parenting, symbolism, therapy, thinking, truth, writing on February 27, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
A wish list from my inner child:
hugs and i love you’s – everyday – heck, multiple times a day even!
books read to me – I don’t ever remember either parent ever reading to me, ever.
a healthy diet – I grew up on processed, refined and pre-packaged junk food – ugh!
cuddle time – like at bedtime or just while watching tv – I hated feeling so alone and disconnected all the time.
Posted in art, creative hobbies, gray area, tainted childhood, tagged abundance, anti-transformation, art, artist, boredom, creativity, dysfunctional family, gray area, inner child, instincts, intuition, job satisfaction, ordinary life, survival, symbolism, thinking, writing on August 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
We are all bored out of our minds.
So – we look for more every single day.
The balance of nature has been offset for so long – our survival instincts to find food, shelter and water – have no where to go except the aisles of our abundant grocery stores. And houses of all shapes and sizes fill the land as far as the eye can see. Sure, we have to have money to provide all of this, but earning a paycheck does little to fulfill our innate need for survival.
{Source: homesteadingsurvivalism.myshopify.com on Pinterest}
There is little reward felt at the end of the day for a job well done because the job(s) most of us do have such intangible results. Instead of filling our days with hunting and gathering – surviving – we fill our days with computer screens, virtual meetings and fuzzy, beige-y gray partitions.
Even those of us who don’t work in the traditional sense (housewives, like me!) – while sometimes it may feel like we are traipsing through the muck and mire of a vast frontier, in actuality, we have homes filled with running water and electricity keeping our food cold, our clothes clean and our bellies full (at least most of us do - I do realize that people do without these things even here in the US).
When basic survival isn’t at hand, it seems to be in human nature to constantly look for ways to fill our desires and to constantly look for more desires to fill.
Don’t get me wrong, I am just as spoiled and comfortable – and quite possibly bored – as the rest of you! I love sipping my iced coffee in my air conditioned living room as I tap away at the keys on this laptop. In fact, I love it!
It’s not like I think civilization should reverse itself to fulfill our bored survival instincts. But I do think it’s interesting to watch these instincts of ours try to busy themselves and take note of what they produce.
{Source: masikawa.tumblr.com on Pinterest}
Human survival instincts may just well be the foundation for the great creative minds out there!
Art - in all its glorious forms – could very well be the expression of our human survival instincts.
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Where do you think Art & Creativity are formed? Are some people just born that way, or is a factor of survival? The tortured artist is a cultural stereotype…do you think there is some truth to it? Do you really need to endure and survive something extraordinary in order to be an artist? Or does “ordinary, modern human existence” qualify as surviving something extraordinary? I’d love to hear your thoughts! Oh, and Happy August to all!!
Posted in beginnings, borderline personality disorder, why I blog, tagged being vulnerable, blogging, borderline personality disorder, dysfunctional family, therapy, thinking, truth, writing on July 24, 2012 | 1 Comment »
July is waning…only about one week until August graces us with his golden presence.
When I started this blog back in April, I can honestly say I had no idea where I was going to go with it. But I just had this pull – this nudging – to do it. Gray Daisies was something that stayed in my head, directly related to the phrases, “my little garden of truth” and “…because life is not black & white”.
I wanted to share my story. My experiences as a child, young adult, and now a full-fledged grown-up (wife, mother, etc.) There has always been a part of me that knew my situation was different than most. Not completely horrific, like some stories you may hear, but still, completely unhealthy and completely dysfunctional.
During these past weeks, I’ve thought about closing up shop here. Taking some time to sort through my recent realizations and confirmations about my childhood and my relationship (or lack thereof) with my own parents and my mother’s mental illness (Borderline Personality Disorder).
But that doesn’t feel entirely right to me either. I want to document this journey for myself and hopefully for others out there that may have similar experiences.
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that this blog of mine needs to become a sounding board for the adult children of borderline parents. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is something that is very prevalent in our society, yet is hardly ever spoken of, or even diagnosed for that fact!
While I realize that someone suffering from BPD has many issues to confront and overcome, I also know first-hand that someone who was raised by a BPD parent has many of their own issues to confront and overcome as well.
So…welcome to Gray Daisies – a place where I will share my story of being raised by a parent with Borderline Personality Disorder and my journey to overcome and thrive.
Gray Daisies is still my “little garden”. It won’t always be so serious and depressing here. I certainly don’t like to wallow in misery – and having a sense of humor is essential for surviving this world of ours! But this BPD thing has certainly defined my life and who I am (for better or worse!) and it will be a strong theme in my posts.
Enjoy the last days of July!
Posted in memoir, photography, self-discovery, tagged being vulnerable, borderline personality disorder, connections, emotions, expectations, fear, freedom, gray area, happiness, intuition, joy, just be, memoir, motherhood, near death, ordinary life, postpartum, self-discovery, symbolism, therapy, thinking, truth, writing on June 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »
{taken early morning, August 26, 2010, from my living room window}
It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in this living room, thinking how my life was feeling more and more like that movie Groundhog Day. I was waiting for E .(nearly 2 weeks overdue) to arrive and part of me was completely terrified for his arrival because deep-down I knew that somehow, someway, giving birth to him was going to be a monumental pivot point in my life – my family’s life. And not in the typical-new-baby-fashion.
{my big E. belly! also on August 26, 2010}
Sometimes things just feel indescribably more important than what you think they should feel like.
I felt that it was the one event in my life that would suddenly click into place and “poof”, my Groundhog Day would end and a new course would begin.
(Boy, did it ever! A near-death experience, traumatic post-partum issues, discovering the whole BPD thing)
I’m so very grateful for my wonderfully simple yet utterly profound life. My husband. My kids. My house. My dog. Even my car. My entire life – in general – in its entirety – from the miniscule to the extraordinary.
I feel like a warrior now – a weary one at times – but still a warrior.
I have returned home from my battles to heal, inside and out. There will be scars.
There are scars, inside and out.
I will continue to heal, knowing with confidence that I am stronger than I could ever have imagined.
My sword, my shield, hanging proudly above my heart’s mantle. A reminder to myself and a warning to any threatening forces.
–> I am a warrior <–
Posted in family, memoir, self-discovery, why I blog, tagged anti-transformation, anxiety, being vulnerable, blogging, borderline personality disorder, connections, dysfunctional family, emotions, fear, freedom, gray area, inner demons, intuition, just be, just write, memoir, motherhood, ordinary life, self-discovery, struggling, therapy, thinking, truth, writing on June 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve been reading through some of my old, personal journal entries lately. Partly for my therapy sessions and partly because I like to be reminded where I’ve been from time to time. This one struck me as pretty important, and I think sharing it with the world (you!) is pretty important too. Just so you know, this is pretty much verbatim from my journal…I’ve only edited out the mis-spellings and some grammar to help it flow better.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The future is now. And here I am…8 months later and I’m still avoiding a decision. Stay or Go? I’m still in the holding pattern. Probably the biggest, most in-your-face-reason why I avoid this journal. Fear.
Fear of making a decision. Fear of making the wrong decision. Fear of making the right decision. I never thought I feared change, but this change is so big and life-altering…the best kind of change out there, really.
Transformation lies ahead of me. I worry.
I worry if “they” will accept my transformation. I worry if I will be able to stay a good mother and a good wife.
It (this change) will set me free. At least that’s what I’ve heard. You know, from those countless intuitive/soul-searching books? I am FREE. Who says I can’t continue to live in abundance?
Source: mr-little.com on Pinterest
Sometimes letting go of things no longer needed is the best way to “have more”. Be more.
I cleaned out half my clothes in my closet over the course of the past year. Letting go is so invigorating. But it is so hard to let go of my paycheck. I feel silly and stupid and greedy all for the same reason. I want to be with my babies. I don’t want my parents to have such a major role in my daily/weekly life. I don’t want to be stuck in the same dysfunctional parent-child relationship as an adult. I want to feel like I am important. I am a mother. And a damn good one to boot. My parents don’t really see me for who I am.
I want freedom. But I fear that freedom I crave will imprison me in other ways. Financial, and as a result, emotionally with Owen. He says he supports me. And I think that he really does. I think that my fear is skewing my judgement, as fear so readily and easily does. I want to jump down the rabbit hole. I want to do so with wild abandonment –> I won’t look back.
Owen wants me to ask about a “leave of absence”. And – really – it does make logical sense. But emotionally, it is just a connection to the past. Will it be a strong enough connection with the past to affect my life? Hmmm….? Hard to say, really. I have learned through writing and reading and many serendipitous encounters that I have the sole key to my own happiness. And I’m finally “getting it”. Slowly (and sometimes in big waves and rushes of inspiration) I now SEE ME. I honestly think I NEED to cut the ties of my job, my career.
All of this stuff that surrounds me…it’s just stuff. My fear is just the “sad-bad-mad” little pill living inside my head. It’s followed me from my past. Sure, nothing’s perfect, but it seems like I have been choosing, searching for ways to wallow in pain and wallow in misery. Seraching for reasons to feel more pitiful. What a crock of crap!
I am truly blessed. And I don’t need to find any missing pieces of my soul/my self in this life. I AM WHOLE. I was born WHOLE. Just like D. and B. are whole, pure little souls. I have that power within me. I Am Free To Be Me. I know that I am with who I need to be with on my journey. Owen, D. and B. We will travel this journey together.
Anyhow – I just want to purge – everything around me. I know it doesn’t sound rational, but it’s just spilling out of me. I want to be in nature. The pressures of “having” can be overwhelming. It takes up precious time and precious energy and precious, precious moments of bliss and love.
I don’t want to be so connected to the chaos of the internet and the TV. It’s addictive – and I feel the yearnings and cravings for my “fix” even while I am outside playing with my babies. I don’t like it. It makes me feel black and moldy on the inside. It’s not real.
I want to feel real, present. I want to feel invigorated.
I am ready to take the leap. Right now.
I want to purge & release & change everything.
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It still took me another 6 months to finally cut the cord to my career. My parents were watching my two kids during the two days each week that I was working, which I knew wasn’t healthy for any of us…but I just couldn’t put my finger on exactly why. This was written nearly 4 years ago, and it is amazing to me how much has changed since then. Perhaps this entry was the catalyst for me to finally listen to my intuition and do what was right for me and my family?
Posted in gray area, why I blog, tagged artist, being vulnerable, blogging, connections, emotions, freedom, gratitude, growing, happiness, inner child, introvert, joy, just be, love, making lists, ordinary life, self-discovery, therapy, thinking, truth, writing on June 26, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Gratitude is the buzz word these days. Be thankful for all that you have, send positive energy out into the Universe and it will be reciprocated tenfold.
Yes, I believe in Gratitude.
But, first and foremost, I believe in Love.
Source: youngmarriedchic.com on Pinterest
Awhile back, I stumbled upon this blog post about writing a daily love list.
It struck a chord with me, and I’ve been writing love lists in my private journal for weeks now.
- I love writing.
- I love sharing my writing.
Those were the first two things I decided to list the very first time I did the exercise. At the time, I was feeling silly and self-absorbed for even considering that my blog would be reader-worthy. But then, I realized, who really cares? I blog because I feel the need to share these pieces of myself with the world.
Like so many other writer-types out there, I am an introvert. So if you were to meet up with me in person, I would likely be quiet and reserved, especially if I didn’t know you very well. This is my space in the world to share those thoughts and feelings, musings, etc. that I would likely keep bumping into in my mind for years to come, never finding a voice to free them.
This love list thing – I dare you to try it sometime! Sit down with your journal, or a laptop, or even a napkin – and write a list of 10 things that you love (about yourself, your life, the world around you!). I guarantee the more you do it, the more you’ll love it!
Love is where we come from and where we are going.
In the wise words of The Beatles’, “Love is all you need.“
I believe in Love.
I hope you believe in Love too.
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What do you love most about what makes you, You? Have you ever made a love list or a gratitude list? Is love really all you need (besides the basics of food, shelter, etc.)?
Posted in gray area, self-discovery, tagged being vulnerable, borderline personality disorder, connections, dysfunctional family, gray area, inner child, inner demons, intuition, memoir, self-discovery, therapy, thinking, truth on June 25, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
When the inspiration for this blog came about in early Spring, I really had no idea where it was going to lead me. I just knew that I needed an outlet for my writing, because keeping my words tucked away in my private journal just wasn’t feeling right for me anymore.
I came up with {gray daisies} for two reasons:
1. Gray – because beige or neutral or plain didn’t sound quite right, and I was looking for an expressive word to define “the ordinary”.
2. Daisies – because they are my all-time favorite flower.
And there you have it - {gray daisies} was born.
At that time, I had no idea what Borderline Personality Disorder was – in fact, I had never even heard of it. Since then, I’ve only had a handful of counseling sessions, but coming to terms with being an adult child of a Borderline parent, well, it’s been interesting to say the least.
Probably the most interesting thing to me in the reading I have done is how BPD defines life only in black and white. For those who suffer with this illness, there is no gray area.
It’s ironic to me that I chose to blog about how life is not black and white, and how there is so much gray area – months before actually talking to my counselor about my mother and my childhood. My inner self knew, just as it always has. But, still, I had to write it down for the world to see, to prove to myself that I wasn’t the crazy one.
Living a lifetime with a parent who sees everything as right or wrong, good or bad, black or white, etc. skewed my perceptions of this world. While the gray area exists in abundance in my rational mind, my emotional mind still struggles with pushing everything into one tidy little category of “good’ or “bad”.
{gray daisies} will not become exclusively about Borderline Personality Disorder, but I do plan on sharing bits and pieces of info and insight, as well as some of my childhood memoirs. This is part of my little garden of truth…my truth. And I look forward to sharing it with you.
Posted in art, creative hobbies, poetry, why I blog, tagged anti-transformation, anxiety, art, being vulnerable, emotions, gray area, inner demons, poetry, struggling, symbolism, thinking, Trifecta, writing on June 21, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Morning light filters through
And my purple clover reaches for more
light
I shut my eyes to thoughts that race
“What If” never finds peace
And my blue mood reaches for more
dark
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A little poetry for the Trifecta Challenge this week. Blue – as in “feeling blue” – was the prompt this week. Now, go enjoy some more wonderful Trifecta writing!
Posted in memoir, self-discovery, why I blog, tagged aging, anxiety, being vulnerable, borderline personality disorder, connections, dysfunctional family, emotions, escapism, expectations, fear, frustration, gray area, inner demons, just be, just write, memoir, motherhood, ordinary life, parenting, self-discovery, thinking, truth, vanity, writing on June 20, 2012 | 6 Comments »
…you probably think this blog is about you.
Well, you’re wrong! It’s about me! (I’m the vain one here!)
Vanity & Aging.
It happens to the best of us. No matter how hard we try to defy time (and gravity!) our bodies insist of sagging and wrinkling and discoloring (age spots, gray hairs).
And I think it’s one of those things – like having kids – that you don’t fully understand until it happens to you. Until more recent years, I never really understood why women would spend hundreds of dollars on those anti-aging elixirs…or even cosmetic surgery!
I always thought I would “age gracefully” – which meant that I would look years younger than I actually was! But, today, at 36 years old, when I look in the mirror, or I see photos of myself, I think, “Who is that woman?!”
I don’t feel old…but I sure do look old!
I know that part of my problem stems from my tumultuous relationship with my own mother. Instead of seeing myself, I see my mom. Damn you, genetics! Don’t get me wrong, she is an attractive woman, but she’s the last person I want looking back at me in my mirror!
This aging thing feels like it just snuck up on me. I was busy for the past 7 years being a wife and mother (I even juggled career for the first four years!) and unfortunately, I lost myself along the way. Not entirely, mind you. But I certainly lost the part that swore she would never “let herself go“.
I have let myself go. I wear elastic waistbands (oh how I heart thee yoga pants!) 95% of the time…because they’re so comfy and I still have about 15 lbs of baby fat to lose (my baby is almost two now, so that baby fat excuse is getting pretty thin!). I seldom wear makeup…and my freckles are starting to morph into age spots, not to mention the wrinkles around my eyes and forehead. Can you say, “Laser surgery is my friend”?
I am fully aware of the “You’re only as old as you feel” adage. And mentally, I am feeling better than I have in so, so long. I am very grateful for that. I do realize that maybe my outward appearance has slipped because I’ve been doing lots of restructuring and sorting out on the inside. I also realize that I am certainly not alone in my wishful vanities and anti-aging battles.
I’m still me. That mom-like person looking back at me in the mirror…that’s still me too. I am a mom (but that does not mean that I am my mom). Who I am on the outside is not nearly as important as who I am on the inside…but I have a sneaking suspicion now that my insides are humming along my outsides want some much needed (and missed!) attention!
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It seems a little shallow and silly to be talking so much about my outsides…but the outside and the inside both play a part in what makes me a whole person! Society is so hypocritical – expecting supermodel beauty, but telling you how shameful vanity is! Do you feel like your insides and outsides match/work together?
Just Write is already in it’s 40th weekly installment…go read some more!
Posted in gray area, self-discovery, tagged anti-transformation, being vulnerable, blogging, connections, emotions, expectations, fear, gray area, inner child, inner demons, just be, ordinary life, parenting, self-discovery, thinking, writing on June 11, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Connections.
It’s a topic that everyone seems to be interested in, ingrained in the human condition.
Is it possible to ever really, truly connect with someone on an emotional level?
I think we all try to, to some degree or another.
Except – first don’t we need to understand our own emotions before we can begin to explain them, or share them with others?
This is where I am right now.
The realization that I don’t really know what emotion(s) I have.
I’m certainly not emotionless. But I don’t know how to explain them, or how to really share them for that matter! This is likely where I’ve been for most of my life. Between being an introvert by nature, and learning to walk on eggshells to try to keep the peace at home (the nurture part), I have a tendency to stuff everything down into those lint-filled pockets of my inner self.
I realize that I am not unique in this way. Most of us, as children, were taught to suppress our emotions, especially those outwardly messy ones like fear and even pain.
When someone asks, “How are you?” Do you respond truthfully?
Are you really, “Fine, thanks.” ?
Does anyone really want to know how truly miserable (or even truly elated) you are really feeling?
Most of us, myself included, find security in the “Fine.” It’s the gray area of ordinariness that we find ourselves in on a daily basis.
Being “fine” is the benchmark of our existence.
I even catch myself telling my own children, “You’re fine.”, when they are clearly not fine.
I wish I had some tidy way to tie up these thoughts…
We all walk the line of “fine” every single day. We wrap ourselves up in that cozy blanket of “fine” and we go about our lives wondering how to truly feel connected to any of it.
Is it the “just fine” that keeps us separate?
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How important are emotional connections to you? Do you feel like you are successful in making them? Or do you tend to tell everyone you are “just fine”, even when you are not? Are we wrong in telling are children that they are “just fine” too? Do the social networks help us to connect…or are we just finding our digital “just fine”?
