22.10.09

GTT: Burning Alive (Vices)

Last Friday, I stood around the bar in my mother's kitchen. My sister brought Thai fortune cookies to complete the Thai-style meal she prepared the family for my mother's birthday. My mother and younger sister's fortunes were inspiring; mine and my older sister's cut us to the quick ... because they hit way too close to home.

I struggle with all the seven deadly sins. I can be greedy, vain, gluttonous, jealous, lusty, and most definitely lazy. But anger often has me in a chokehold. My fortune let me know that holding onto hurt and anger doesn't just affect you once, it is an open wound that you carry around with you every day and that infects every relationship you enter.

Despite seeing a therapist and writing through my emotions on this blog, I still struggle with letting it go. Often, my anger wells up and floods my body without me even realizing it's happening. It's like a piece of white hot metal that scorches everything it touches. You won't always hear it, but you'll feel it. The hard stare, the coldness when I walk into the room, the explosion of burning words when I open my mouth.

This is the vice that I try to control and can't. I grew up fighting and learned early to protect myself both physically and emotionally. I learned to punch and kick, to grow nails long enough to slice skin, to turn inanimate objects into weapons. I learned to attack with force and to finish off an opponent. I learned to never get caught in the shadows and to avoid enemies in packs. Those skills don't help me much these days, but I find myself still using my sharpened tongue and ability to perceive which words will burn the hottest and longest.

This is my statement that I'm putting it down. The gasoline, the match, the flame -- they shouldn't be my constant companions. I don't need to feed them and keep them at the ready. I am making this promise to myself: Use your hands, your mind, and your words to nurture and create good. Be vulnerable, accept that you will get hurt, but also that you will survive.

6 comments:

  • juliana

    This is a powerful post. Thank you for sharing it. It's definitely about allowing hurt sometimes...while you seem strong when you are fighting, you can feel even stronger when you hurt and then survive anyway.

  • Unknown

    Your post is so powerful. I mean, I swear you could submit that as poetry.

    I'm touched.

  • colleen

    The only thing I can think to say is HUG to you. Wow. This was amazing.

  • Heather of the EO

    I don't even know what to say except that this was amazing.

    Anger is a really tricky one for me too...it's like my brain won't stop going there and taking me over. So defeating.

    Thank you for sharing this.

  • Jack Steiner

    Writing is a great outlet for me. Without this, I am not sure what I would do.

  • Susan Berlien

    Wow!Powerful post! I never thought about it before, but I struggle with all 7 sins too. Yuk!

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