Be prepared! A three five part saga is in progress on CRUSHED CARAMEL. This is Part One!
You have very likely seen the fascinating series hosted by Beckie, the creator of Beckie’s Mental Mess, entitled “WORKING ON US”. Each week she selects a theme and invites us all to participate by writing about the challenges we may have faced on that theme and how we have worked to overcome those challenges.
I have been reading the posts from other bloggers for some time with great admiration. But until now, I have not felt I had much to say on many of the themes. However, the theme that Beckie has chosen for this week really resonated with me. The theme for this week’s “WORKING ON US” is “REJECTION AND OVERCOMING REJECTION”.
If you have been reading my recent posts, you will know that I am a very happy girlie of late. Something amazing has happened in my life. Caramel is very cheery and content. Peace and joy have flooded into her heart. All is wonderful! But it was not always this way.
I am not so naive as to think I will never face painful challenges ever again. Having experienced painful rejection in the past, I am not going to set myself up for a crash that could to a crises. I am more aware of my weak points now, I know where I am vulnerable. I am going to be prepared for future disappointments, specifically when it comes to facing REJECTION. When life throws that particular curveball at me, I plan to be more prepared for it.
In fact…when I first began writing posts on CRUSHED CARAMEL, I realized that this could be an avenue to talk about challenges in a way that I was fearful to burden anyone else with. I didn’t want to weigh down my friends and family. But somehow, an audience of complete strangers (often made up of those who have often had challenges to overcome themselves and write about what helped them to do so) seemed a safer and easier way to express what happened.
At the moment, the pain of the past seems so long ago. But right up until Jack made contact me, it was fresh, always just beneath the surface. In my case, when wounds heal, I forget the pain. Because all is wonderful at the moment, the memories that used to plague me have faded. But when life throws up painful challenges, sometimes that pain comes back full force.
Learning strategies to be prepared for a tsunami of painful, perhaps traumatic, memories that threaten to swallow you up, is so important. I have had to find ways to keep my head above water at times.
Since I began this post…I have realized that this could potentially become a very long post. I keep trying to shorten my posts, so I have decided to split this one up into a three parter. This is just the introduction. The other two posts will examine the challenges I faced on the theme of REJECTION, and then my own personal experience when it came to OVERCOMING REJECTION.
To give you a taster of what to expect, I found these posts that I wrote and have published on CRUSHED CARAMEL, during the eighteen months I have been blogging:
I Suppose I Did For Five Minutes…But That Was Over Three Years Ago
I Think I Can Safely Say That Today Is Over
When Your Whole World Is Turned Upside Down
I will publish this part now…and the other two parts will come as soon as I have time to work on them! Jack will be here soon. Yes…Jack! Isn’t it wonderful! I have stuffed peppers in the oven and some salad all made up. There is nothing naughty in my cupboards at the moment, so I have told him if he wants something naughty he can bring a pudding or some wine…or he has to be content with me!
I love him so much and I am so glad, so so glad that during the time I was hurting most, I managed to keep my painful feelings under control and held back from damaging Jack. He now knows the decisions I made to protect him, even though he had accidently hurt me. It would seem that he loves me for it. Although I am going to reexamine an emotionally intense period of my life, at the end of the day…that’s what matters most…love and peace. Everything else seems to be fading away for the most part.
I had so much love from Jack while we were away. I needed that. I had missed him so much. In the end it was only five days I went without seeing him, but that was too long.
He’s changing my view of him and everything that happened. I could never make sense of it on my own. It all overwhelmed me. I felt helpless, powerless to fight the sheer volume of nastiness and slander that was directed my way. I felt so rejected. I especially felt as if Jack had abandoned me. I was lost. Completely lost…that led to feelings of despair.
Caramel 