They gave me that look and those words, critiquing my lodging arrangements on our trip. She stood in the middle of the street and started singing beautifully, and I realized she would always be better than me at everything. She came up to me and touched the mole on my face, the one that sprouts black hairs.
Two nights ago, I dreamed all those scenarios, one right after another, and what an insecurity bath it was!
Sometimes my confidence is off-the-charts, and I love being me, and “weird” is a badge of honor. Then my world opens up a bit more, or I’m plunged back into an earlier time with earlier people, and it all comes back.
I’m not invincible; I’m fragile.
Two autumns ago, I knew the steps and I walked in them. Literally. I knew that writing helped me understand myself. I knew that walking brought clarity to thoughts and prayers. So I did both often, and the steps were simple, and life was sweet.
But it was easier to carve out the space for these life-giving habits then. I had just returned home from seven months abroad. I was reunited with my cats and the majority of my wardrobe, and everything looked a little newer and fresher than it had before I left. I was afraid of this return, afraid of falling back into depression and old, hated patterns, but I was healthy, the world was new, and I had time aplenty on my hands. And so I slid smoothly into the new rhythm.
But once you slide out of it, as I did after a few months — gradually and imperceptibly — it’s hard to regain that footing.
It’s been almost a year and a half now since those (perceived) idyllic days.
It terrifies me how fragile this is, how fragile I am, how easily I can and have lost my way on the slippery slopes of self-loathing and comparison and laziness and many others.
Writing again has been like exchanging someone else's glasses for a pair that's actually my prescription. I’m grateful to be able to see again, but I’m also fearful. What if I lose them or break them or forget them somewhere? What if I forget to clean them and they get all smudged and blurry and I'm so used to the new normal that I don't realize it's time for a reset?
And how do I even know these glasses are the "magic formula" for seeing? What if there's a better, sharper pair somewhere else, and I'm unknowingly settling for ones that may work for a while, but will give me headaches in the end?
