A New Day….
This morning I laid in bed and watched as the beautiful pink and purple colors surrounded the skyline. I felt completely relaxed, content, peaceful and happy. I watched as the light intensified into bright orange as the sunlight took over and a new day began….spring is in the air!
Last night I awoke in the middle of the night gasping for air, my heart was beating fast and felt as though it would jump right out of my chest. It was one of those dreams where out of no where your body is reacting as if a tragic event has happened. I was crying, I was feeling deep sadness, hurt and uncontrollable pain in the center of my chest. It was the kind of pain you feel when someone close to you dies, that impending feeling of loss, of grief…of despair. Before I had full control over my thoughts I was aware of the person in my dream, I knew him, he was from my past over 14 years ago. He was someone I never dreamed about, at least not anymore.
At first he was pulling away, I was acting my normal goofy self, playful, happy trying to get him to laugh. He seemed distant, was not amused and grumpy. Finally, I called him out and told him to lighten up, those words were what started my immediate pain and eventually the reason I awoke. “I’ve been seeing someone else,” he said…the words came out easily for him, easier than any words I had ever heard him speak.
He was a quiet man, one who rarely talked, unless it was about fishing or basketball. He never shared personal emotions. I don’t remember him being that way in the beginning but at this point in our lives, ten years of learning who he was he had two personalities…one was vulgar and one was anger. When he was speaking those words he was calm, spoke clearly and watched quietly as my emotional state disintegrated in an instant. I said nothing, I just felt a sharp pain in my chest and panic set in. My whole body hurt and I began to cry. As I turned to leave the room he said something, I can’t remember what it was but I remember how it made me feel. He was trying as he always did to make me feel guilty, to blame me for his actions, to make me feel as though I had treated him bad, had not given him what he wanted and had drove him to this…then he began getting angry, the tone in his voice changed and that was when I realized it was a dream.
All the deep emotions I had when I left him more 14 years ago surfaced at that moment, the sadness, the hurt, the heartbreak and despair. All but one….anger. In the dream as I was waking up I remember thinking this will make it easier, I now have a reason he will understand, he will finally have a clear reason of why I am choosing to move on, this is a very good thing. I sat up in bed and started crying out loud, I asked as if someone was in the room…where in the world did that dream come from?
The strange thing about my dream last night is that as far as I know my ex husband never cheated on me. I did learn after our separation that he had lied when we met, he was living with a woman that he “had” dated even though I was led to believe he was living with a bunch of guys in a house across town.
I have no idea what triggered that dream to happen, our minds are very strange in how they work. What I do know is that having the courage to leave that person because of the verbal abuse I was experiencing, regardless of how much I loved him was by far the best life choice I have ever made. I held onto anger for a number of years. I have worked very hard to earn back my self dignity, my ability to love myself and to know who I am and what I deserve. I have also worked hard to forgive and to let go of the anger. Perhaps that dream was my test. I laid in bed for 30 minutes before falling back asleep, I was afraid at first I would settle back into the dream. I smiled as I laid there because I realized not only did I not feel anger in that moment I had not gotten angry in the dream.
I guess the reason I am sharing this with you is that I realize now how holding on to anger affects your overall happiness in life. When you have those feelings toward someone else you never truly let go of them or the pain. Letting go allows you to have space for good things to reside. If you are holding on to any anger or resentment figure out how to let it go, I promise it will set you free and allow so many new and wonderful things to happen.
Today is a new day and I feel great! I am ready to make this day count and I hope that you will do the same! Sending love as always….pass it on!