self esteem – Opinions Of Eye

Alone –

“Imaginary lovers
Never turn you down
When all the others turn you away
They’re around
It’s my private pleasure
Midnight fantasy
Someone to share my
Wildest dreams with me”

– Atlanta Rhythm Section

DreamWind

I’d do anything to keep from being alone, pay any price, be used to the “nth” degree and never say a word. Being used is better than being alone but it stings knowing the object of my affection will hurt me, maim my spirit, and destroy my forward progress. Still, I follow hard after her, giving all to maintain that relationship and avoid the terrors of being alone. What compromises have I willing conceded to? What violations of my self-esteem and personal space have I allowed for unrequited affection? What tortures has my heart been through, my body feeling the wretch of emotions that sets my nerves on fire? Being addicted, not to a substance, but to a world of egocentric affection that I’ve created by taking the object of my affection and embellishing her to a fantastic degree. I should know better, I do know better. The voices of friends and family, concerned that I am “being used”, try to slap me awake. Ignoring their advice, pushing away the voice of truth, I continue to live a world that only I see. Go away you bearers of truth, you wreckers of dreams, this is my world, I will not see it in your light! I take my script and apply it haphazardly, patching up the holes in the dike containing my empty dreams. Eagerly lapping up my lack of self-control and willful delusion, the protagonist in my play continues to feed my world of facades with empty compliments, cool affections, and eyes empty of love. One day I’ll wake up and grab hold of myself, one day I’ll acknowledge this self-imposed hell, one day…but for now, I look at her and imagine how she loves me.

Also published in Broowaha

012112

The Value of One

“What about everybody else Pye? How many lives can there be in one universe?'[…] ‘How many lives Richard?'[…]’One.’.” – Richard Bach, One


If I knew I would be saved by its shade, would I see the value of helping it grow?

The most incredible things can happen when I place investment in the life of one. That person may change the course of not only my life, but of the world. Who knew when they encouraged and befriended a young, and then unknown, Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, or Steve Jobs, that the person they invested in would greatly affect the course of their life and a great many others?

Human nature, being fascinated with egocentricity, evaluates success with increasing numbers. The danger is that I engage my efforts in activities that guarantee my advancement up the ladder of accumulation at the expense of an individual. By overlooking the one, I surrender my beliefs, my identity, and my dreams to assure an increase that will eventually destroy me and lead to the failure of accumulation. When I forget the value of one person, I forget the value of me. My life suffers, my dreams die, and my soul withers. Losing sight of this intrinsic worth of one, self-esteem becomes a creature formed by opinion, my happiness will depend on a demanding public, and my conscience accuses me of failure with each drop in my perceived worth. Don’t worry about the many, concentrate on the one overlooked and forsaken by society, by business, by the fickle crowd. Then, placing myself in a constant awareness of the value of one, I will follow the example of my Big Brother, leave the 99, and go after that one.

Also published in Broowaha

12242011

Lie Anyway – Lies threaten Love

“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

cool-story

Speak with your face turned away,

words that I long for you to say.

I believe them even if they may

keep my logic in constant sway

Holding my aching mind at bay

go ahead my love, lie anyway.

Also published in Broowaha

Tear Drop

“It’s so curious: one can resist tears and ‘behave’ very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer…and everything collapses. ” – Colette

atriptomywonderland

I’ll never be without them, they follow me everywhere, when I feel their finally gone, with vengeance they find me again, forcing themselves on me, insisting that I acknowledge them. I scarcely can resist their efforts, so enduring and persistent they’ve become. I give them place, being preeminent in my existence, being associated always with me, my companions, never to leave. I entertain them now, with some resistance, allowing them to have their way with me, to work me into submission. As I give way to them, I stand back, in my mind wondering, perhaps this is the way I must go, to walk with them and be taught by them; it’s a hard way. When joy is born, quickly they are taken from me, teasing me by allowing me to feel a moment’s respite. I go on now, taking them with me, forgive me if leave a few of them on your shoulder…

also published in Broowaha

12082011

Two Methods For Dealing With Negative People

“Relationships with negative people are simply tedious encounters with porcupines. You don’t have the remote knowledge how to be close to them without quills being shot in your direction.” ― Shannon L. Alder

The following is an article by a talented writer, David Cain, on his website Raptitude. Enjoy.

A recurring question I get from readers is, “How do you deal with negative people?” I’ve never directly written about it because I’m not always sure whether they’re asking how *I* deal with negative people, or how one ought to deal with negative people. I can only tell you how I do it. There are actually two ways I deal with negative people.

Method 1

When someone makes a needless negative comment, I feel a spike of contempt somewhere in my lungs, and my eyes probably narrow for a second. I give a terse answer, if one is required. My mind says to the person, “Why do you have to be such a dick about it?” but I don’t actually say that. Then once I’m out of their presence I tell stories in my head about how wrong they are, I play out imaginary confrontations, I might make a speech that nobody will hear. Or I think of what I should have said right then, George Costanza style. “Well the jerk store called, and…”

This kind of internal dialogue/monologue can go on until I’m interrupted by real life, but even then it sometimes resurfaces later. It sometimes makes the day a bad day.

With this method, the one thing I don’t do is do something. I do think a lot though. I think with great force and anger. I think up a storm, a real impressive one. I inventory my reasons for how right I am, several letters-to-the-editor’s worth. My body doesn’t do anything except maybe make involuntary faces. It’s possible my tongue moves, I don’t know. In other words, the first of the two methods I have for dealing with negative people is to become one.

Method 2

It starts out the same: person says something negative, and I feel that contempt feeling, but for whatever reason it triggers a different thought process. I do feel the impulse to go on an internal tirade, but I don’t. Instead I find myself recognizing that the offensive party is having a bad day or a bad moment that could just as easily be happening to me. Even if they’re having a bad life, that could just as easily be happening to me too.

It’s not quite forgiveness, it’s more like, “Ah I’ve been there. Frustrated and unreasonable. Directing it at people who don’t deserve it.”

Even though my knee-jerk response is to stare daggers, I’m reminded that people get negative when they’re unconscious, in pain or trying to protect themselves from pain. All human activity can be boiled down to a combination of seeking pleasure and avoiding suffering. Negativity tends to come from avoiding suffering, and if I’m being fair, it helps neither of us to blame them for it.

Pessimism shields people from despair because it keeps expectations low. Blame shields people from the threats of having to be responsible for a problem they don’t think should be happening. I have been caught up in both, at times today even.

When I use method two I end up feeling almost good towards the negative party. It’s a weird feeling if you’re not used to it. The pain of others suddenly becomes directly relevant to you, yet it remains theirs.

Shhhhh…. – Words can maim for life

“Because even the smallest of words can be the ones to hurt you, or save you.”
― Natsuki Takaya

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The tongue can set a fire no man can extinguish. The venomous stings it inflicts can break apart even the best friendships. Life and death are in the power of the words we speak. We’d do well to remember that when we blithely spout off the latest rumors, the latest dirt, about the ones we love. Don’t repeat the gossip, don’t listen to the gossip. Shhhhh…..

Also published in Wingposse Magazine, December 2012

11132011

Though – To forget you, I cannot

“Love between strangers takes only a few seconds and can last a whole life.”
― Simon Van Booy, Love Begins in Winter: Five Stories

I felt your hair, though you were a stranger, laying on my leg.

I enjoyed your attention, though you were distracted, by another.

I let myself feel you, though I knew you would leave, again.

I remember you now, though others have forgotten, you never left me.

12012011

Alone In The Company of Her

“The trouble is not really in being alone, it’s being lonely. One can be lonely in the midst of a crowd, don’t you think?” – Christine Feehan, Dark Prince

melissaharmonphoto

We smiled our smiles, kisses burned

Feelings rushed one way

For me not returned

This is how I find myself

Alone in the company of her

Also published in: Broowaha

11262011

Damn This Circle – Catch 22

“The wind blew my words away from you. So while I told you I love you, the phrase was carried in the opposite direction and landed 333 miles away in the ears of a confused farmer. He was nice, though. He sent me a kind letter saying that while he was flattered, I wasn’t really his type.  ”
― Jarod Kintz, The Days of Yay are Here! Wake Me Up When They’re Over.

She loved me, never forgetting.

I loved another, I’m now regretting.

Now I wonder, if I should try,

to love again, to say goodbye.

Damn this circle, it torments only.

Now left alone, desperately lonely.

11102011

Damn This Circle – Catch 22

She loved me, never forgetting.

I loved another, I’m now regretting.

Now I wonder, if I should try,

to love again, to say goodbye.

Damn this circle, it torments only.

Now left alone, desperately lonely.

11102011