Tag Archives: feelings

Searching

“I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.” – Emily Dickinson

9.27.26

Today was the first day in a long time that I did not have an impending sense of doom. Not doom in the normal sense, but the inability to be fully in the moment because there’s too much hanging over you, a backlog of to-do’s that may or may not ever be done, trying to hold all the pieces of staying in touch with others and with myself.

I’ve been in some level of survival mode for months now. Life doesn’t care or slow down. I’m busy and overwhelmed daily…except for today.

I think I’ve been searching for a me that I remember fondly. One who held to a routine, sang for the sake of singing – and posted it for strangers on the internet, one who got home from work tired but would still make dinner feel far from mundane; the one who wrote, who relaxed – from the past. I miss her. I don’t know when she left or the real reason, but I’ve wanted her back ever since.

The version of that me I have been desperate to have back, is highly romanticized. All of the pain and struggle that existed simultaneously to this version of me, has been muted.

So, I realized today, that I can never be that person again – and that’s okay. Current me, future me, are just as important as the one in my memory I’ve been trying to hold on to. Instead of looking for those pieces of me, and trying to make them fit into my current life, I must accept the me that exists now. How sad to leave her waiting, while I conduct a pointless search for pieces of the past.

I am not the same person I was, and yet I still am me. Celebrating that sounds silly, especially since I don’t harbor as much love for this me as the other, but what might be a turning point, a perspective shift, that is worth a small celebration.

How else do we move forward, if we do not let go of the past…

So hello, Strangers and Friends. It’s so good to speak to you again. I’m hopeful for the future, even though unknown.

Thank you for being human

I’ve worked a customer service role, in some form or another, for many years. The jokes about the “real you” and your “customer service you” difference are very applicable. Turning on tour guide Barbie from the other side of the phone with dead eyes is an acquired skill and easy to fall into once an option. It is an especially easy escape when you actually tend to care quite a bit about well, everything.

When describing myself as highly empathetic and highly sensitive, I rarely count them as helpful traits to myself. Yes, in an interview, they can be phrased as being an excellent problem solver, genuine and caring for the needs of the customer but the large toll that they actually take on me is hidden. It takes so much effort to let myself be the default me, to care deeply, notice small things, feel strongly. The pain and selfishness in this world weighs heavily at times.

Today, I was helping a patient on the phone. Obviously, because of HIPA, I can’t share the full story but I spoke to them multiple times and they were worried and flustered. The last time I spoke to them, they recognized my voice. “Thank you for being human.” In the midst of their worry, they thanked me for being genuine and compassionate because they could tell the difference.

Being told you have a special gift for helping people, especially when you yourself are struggling, having a rough time, is a one-of-a-kind compliment. Thank you for being human. My strong feelings, soft heart, the exhaustion that comes from them, they are part of being human. I need to remind myself of that.

So even though I can’t say any identifying information about this person, thank you for taking the time out of your worry to acknowledge something about me that I fight to not turn off or zone out from. Thank you for seeing that I am not a robot. Thank you for impacting my day.

And to you, strangers and friends, thank you for being human.