I have always loved romance movies and novels. Being swept away by a love so intense that it makes the whole world fade away. I made a profound realization this evening that I have never made before. I watched a movie on Netflix called After, this isn’t a review, honestly, I watch the sappiest of movies and love them, but this is just for reference. As I sat there at the end of the movie all I wanted to do was cry. I could see my heart in my chest cracked open and my life force spilling out. I looked around and felt longing. I realized at that moment that the reason I love romance novels and movies so much is so that I don’t lose that feeling of passion and love. It helps me keep love alive, or the idea of it, it helps me from hardening. My heart longs for someone, somewhere out there that I have not yet met. Is it strange to say I can feel the distance between us? I can see more clearly over these last few months than I ever have my whole life. I used to let loneliness rule me, and I let it push me into the next relationship. I don’t know if I will ever find the person my heart longs for, and maybe this is a way of pushing love away, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like I finally know what I want, and I won’t settle for anything less. I do realize my fears however, I can see clearly how cautious I am with people. I don’t want to be hurt, and even more so, I don’t want to hurt anyone again. The blessing and curse of an empath is that I can feel all my decisions from every angle. I feel myself, my partner, my kids, friends, people around. I can feel the jabs of pain from every angle. As I type I can see why I have become so cautious, so guarded, even with friendships. Our emotions are why we remember the way we do, it is the feelings that keep memories alive within us. Once that feeling is let go, the memories fade. I have been carrying around the pain of every past love I have ever had, it is no wonder I am weary, I am cautious to add more pain to the mix! I didn’t realize until this evening that I was even doing this, not until the sadness hit me, and I was pulled to my keyboard. The more I type, the clearer things become. My love is my life force, it always has been. I take sadness and I give love. But when I can no longer give, when I am too full of sadness, my love runs dry. I leave, I run, I try to get away. And when I have been gone for some time I feel my love returning as the moon pulls on the tides and crashes emotions to the shore. When my love returns, that is when I wonder and look deeply at my life and all I have done. I have always loved being alone to recharge, I love being alone now, but I can now clearly see it is because I feel like the world is safe if I am alone. Such a silly thing to uncover about oneself and the motives of my subconscious. What a deep and sad thing to realize about oneself. But all things must be illuminated eventually, and when they are they can transform, and that is love, that is healing.
Morning, October 8th, 2019
As the sun was setting I could feel my body relaxing, night has always brought peace to me where the energy of the day never can. My dreams have been many the last couple nights, I had decided to sleep with a polished chunk of labradorite that I have had for years. As I drifted off to sleep yesterday I was transported to a short set of stairs and as I walked down I saw a beautiful stone archway covered in plants and flowers. I felt like this space was important. I am going to try and find the time to draw it today, as the vision is starting to fade. It was beautiful and had profound energy that felt like home, for lack of a better word. I need to keep a recorder close so I can start keeping records of my dreams. I like to lazily record them real quick before they fade, and then I transfer them to a dream journal. I can say that my dreams have been very active but aside from that stone archway, I can’t recall much more than that. For the most part, I believe our dreams are to help us navigate through our emotions and things that have, or are, happening to us that we are struggling to deal with during the waking hours. But, other times, I feel as though I have been to another world or place. What if when we sleep we awake in another place or time? I believe that for me this is what happens, and I have read it before so I know I am not the only one. I had thought about this years ago and started researching it, perhaps it is time to continue… Or at the very least document!! Just a few of my morning ramblings before my day take takes movement.
Shall I Finally Write?
As I sit here, sleep drawing nearer and nearer, all I can think of is typing. I have been feeling such an immense pull to write the last few months. So strong that anything else I do feels unsatisfying. So, here I am, fingers on the keyboard, eyes on the screen, heart open. What is on my heart? Honestly, anyone who is reading this. I truly feel that we are drawn to where we need to be, to see exactly what we need to, read what we need to see. In every moment, we just need to open our eyes and hearts and listen. I remember years ago writing up wishes I had for myself, visions of where I wanted to be. I actually found some of them in old journal entries. They always ended with me stating that I wanted to be a writer and that I wanted to live in Maine. So, here I am, fast forward almost 10 years and I am in Maine… Not writing. I ask myself everyday why, but there is never quite a clear answer. A lot of it is that I have too many ideas and they all start to meld when I write, the other is that I don’t feel worthy, or good enough. Recently I had one of those ‘aha’ moments as to why. Sitting and thinking on my life and all the choices I have made, looking at my loop of patterns, and self-sabotaging tendencies I came to an answer. Rejection. My fear of rejection runs so deeply that it masked itself as other things, and it rooted itself into every aspect of my life. Including writing. Sure, I am a busy woman, but it is amazing what one can accomplish in the span of being awake. And I just decided while sitting here that I wanted to write, so I am going to. I wanted to start with a blog because I have not written anything on here in forever and I wanted to clear some cobwebs, so to speak. I have added a tab ‘Shadow Warriors’ which is going to be a mirror to the YouTube channel and Facebook group I created to teach people how to befriend themselves, uncover their deepest shadows and step into them. To take their power back. So many things have been on my mind and heart and I have been pushing them away, being lazy… Fearing rejection. I have made many promises over the years, on here, in journals, on YouTube, etc. that I will post every week at least. I will not be doing this kind of promise again, instead, I will promise to do all I can do in a space of bravery and if I don’t write it will be a free-willed choice, not one based on my fears. The truth is, no literary piece is perfect, no post has all the answers. I cannot hold myself to those standards, it makes it so I can’t write, I can’t create. And that my friends, is just not okay. I plan to write every day, if not on here then on my books or journals. It is time to start making this a habit because I have some things to say and I think you will enjoy reading them ♥ Sleep well, everyone ♥
~Anna Marie
My Life Focus, Art
Good morning, all my lovely readers, I am inspired. Life inspired. I have struggled with ‘who am I?’ and ‘why am I here?’ for my entire life. Over the past couple of months, I have gone through some drastic changes in my life, and my outlook on life. One of the first lessons I was faced with was brought up by a song, by Macklemore, I heard on the radio. I am horrible with names so I can’t recall the title of the song, but of the lines was ‘well at least you’re happy’ and he was talking about an ex that was trying to be friends after she broke it off with him because she wasn’t happy. He was talking about how he was miserable but at least she was happy. At that moment I realized that I have only ever taken into account my own happiness, I wholeheartedly want others to be happy as well but not at the expense of my own happiness.
I affect everyone around me, and my love, hate, anger, peace will ripple. When I make a choice it affects everyone. When I was unhappy it wasn’t because of some outside force, but that is where I was putting it. I put my unhappiness on my marriage, the feelings of being stuck, feeling like my kids hate me, etc. This was all in my head and I was going to run, yet again. Because running is the easy way out for me, running lets me start over. But, I am grateful for the situation we are in, I have no easy way ‘out’ and it has forced me to face myself head-on. What right do I have to destroy someone’s life because I am not ‘happy’, especially someone I love? That is the easy and horribly destructive path out. But I don’t want to be out, I want to be all in. I want to live on the edge with love, with acceptance, with truly being a caring human.
I love my life, I love my family, I love myself. How did I get here you ask? By taking care of myself. By cutting out things that were drastically hurting my body, like caffeine. I have also lowered my sugar drastically, I still consume it and have moments of overconsumption but it is not daily anymore, and I can now go weeks without if I have to. I have also begun managing my stress. I do this by communicating, writing, doing art, getting the task that needs to be done completed (still working on this one). My anxiety is still here with me, it always will be, but by sitting around and just letting it take me has created some health issues for me, along with some bad eating habits and weight gain.
I have also rekindled my spirituality, I draw an oracle card every day to set focus and I do tarot readings when I need them. I am trying to get back into my Yoga and I focus on positive intentions every day. All these have helped me crawl out of the hole I have been hiding in. Because I have in fact been hiding, I have been hiding since I was a little girl and it is time to emerge from my long slumber and set my mighty roar upon the world. No more hiding. I got a message the other day from some readings and it was ‘What would you do if you were not afraid?’ This message stuck with me for weeks! And last week I finally took the leap and went for it. I created a YouTube Channel, a Patreon page and I started converting my social media accounts to serve my artist purposes. I also started listening to friends instead of taking their constructive criticism as an attack. I feel strong, vibrant, rested, and I am ready to attack my world and make the best life I can. This being said, my passion is art or anything that lets me create. So come along the adventure with me as I document my art and the process that I go through to be who I am as an artist. I also talk about what I do and what helps me heal. I hope that my life inspires you and thank you for reading! ❤
My YouTube: Art with Anna, Dragonfly Rose
My Patreon: Anna Burdette is Creating…
My Facebook Page: Dragonfly Rose Art
Empty Explanations
I wish I could explain how much anger and frustration hurts me,
How it breaks me down into some hollow shell of a being,
How it turns my heart black.
I wish I could explain the way my heart breaks when my children don’t want me around,
Or my very presence seems to annoy them.
I wish I could explain.
I wish you could see and feel through my heart and soul.
Today, I just want to run away from all of it.
There is more anger and frustration here than love at times,
And it is too heavy to carry.
I wish I could explain how the years of trying to make everyone happy,
every single day,
has worn me to the point of unhappiness.
I wish I could explain that I know it is of my own doing.
But the explanations have become exhausting,
I am so very tired,
And I have been reduced to nothing more than this hollow empty shell.
I Am Lake Natron
I am being swallowed,
consumed,
by a blackness that I cannot escape.
I feel it hanging heavily from every limb and organ of my body.
I am like the Lake Natron,
A beautifully deadly water,
I will turn you into a calcified corpse.
Maybe I myself am just that.
Where Medusas stare once held me,
I now float through life,
a lifeless statue.
I know so many methods,
and have so many tools,
To help me escape this.
But I am trapped,
Trapped by the black tar that holds me.
I don’t expect you to understand,
I don’t talk about this because you can never understand.
You cannot walk my shoes,
You would never survive the maze of my mind,
But I don’t blame you,
I don’t hate you,
Even though at times I do.
Even when good things happen,
The joy within me is only temporary,
And It fades like the moon fades from a clouded sky.
I am stuck in a loop,
A hallway that continues forever with no doors.
You will never understand me,
and this is where love dies.
I cannot be what you want me to be…
Victory in The Small Things
My mind is tired,
body sore.
My cat’s purr rumbles like mini earthquakes through my flesh.
Almost ready,
to stretch my body
and put my mind at ease.
Flowing Flowing Flowing
Breathing Breathing Breathing
I meditate on the movements of my sore tired body.
These small moments,
Where I push through.
Push even though I’m tired and hurting.
These are the moments in which I feel victorious.
Breathing Life
Life is the sun on my face through a passing window,
A hot cup of tea on an icy cold day,
Breath in my lungs,
Love in my heart.
I feel the glitter of goosebumps on my skin.
Every breath deeper and deeper,
My stress melts away.
And the heaviness falls,
Like the avalanche of snow off a mountainside.
Different Ways, Russian Doll Healing
I was reading an article in the magazine Kindred Spirit on the Matryoshka Method, developed by Therapist Cedric Speyer. In the article he brings up some key things that I never really thought about. He says that traditional therapies focus on our pain, the peeling back of layers of pain to find the ‘root’ pain. This is a very painful process, full of tears and agony. But, what if we instead focused on what is good and ‘right’ about ourselves and then build up from that? This is the Matryoshka Method. Starting with what is right, whole, and good at our cores and then building the layers from there, all fitting within each other like the Matryoshka (Russian) dolls. If in the end we are not defined, or trying to not be defined, by our past pains, then why are we focusing on our pain? As quoted from the article “Imagine the smallest, innermost doll as the essential core of goodness inside each of us. When you start from there, you can build up your Russian doll layer by layer, realigning the outer personas with the essential needs, values, and intentions of your innermost Russian doll.” *page 35 of the July 2016 issue of Kindred Spirit* Seeking with the soul, and seeing with the heart. What better way to heal? As the article states, this is not about treating psychological conditions, but a creative way to practice attunement, realignment, and ongoing calibration, based on what our souls want and need based on the ‘shape’ of our innermost Russian dolls. I love how the article terms traditional psychotherapy as ‘woundology’. It is in fact woundology. Why would we treat a wound, with a wound? I am excited to embark on the journey of this method. I have lived a life of trying to heal and move on from my past using ‘woundology’, time to try a new method!
I have searched and searched the webs for more information on this method, and have come up empty. I have added a link in my reference above to the magazine containing the article if you are more interested in checking it out, I highly recommend it!
A Bit of Romace, Lessons, Pain, and Moving
I have been thinking a lot about relationships lately. All kinds of relationships but with my wedding right around the corner I have been thinking a lot about romantic relationships between people. I used to believe that two people needed to be whole before a relationship could last, but I am finding that this just isn’t true. When you find someone that makes life feel complete, feel whole, this is the want I have always seeked out. At the same time I am witnessing what will happen when that hole is once again a part of your life. A recent loss in our family has made this whole experience joyous, but heart wrenchingly sad at the same time. I wish I had a magick wand that I could wave and bring him back, well and whole, because I want to see him again but mostly to heal her heart. I know her tears will lessen and she will once again be able to ‘carry on’ again, but she will forever have a deep rooted scar that will never heal. She lost the other part of herself. This pain scares me, scares me to death. Some day I might be in her situation, or he might be. I used to think that this kind of pain wasn’t worth it, but the truth is that it is. I see her in pain but I also get to hear stories of the amazing life they had together, the magickal love they shared. It makes the pain worth it. As I am a couple weeks away from marrying a man whom fits my soul like a key to a lock, I can’t wait for the next chapter of our lives. We are moving to Maine come June, which was only more solidified with the news that our landlady is selling the house we are renting come Summer. I am scared, but excited. I have no delusions anymore about finding a love/life like the movies or books. These aren’t real, I am joyously happy that I have a real life, a real relationship, and a man that completes me. A man I love so deeply and that I get to spend the rest of my days with. Sure we will have bad days, it’s life, it’s how we talk, handle, and deal with every situation that matters. I still have my head in the clouds but I feel more leveled and more realistic. Funny, I almost prefer all the fights we had in the beginning… Taught us how to communicate with each other, and to love each other more deeply. I have loved and lost here in Kansas, I can’t wait to start our new life. Whoever says that moving doesn’t change anything, change your life, perspectives, etc… Has never truly moved and traveled. I will take the lessons from the pain here and keep the love and memories forever.
