Mirror

I can never be assured of my worth. In the scheme of things, I can never understand just how much I mean to someone I love. I know what they mean to me and just how much it would devastate me, if I lost them. But I can never realise what it would mean for them to lose me.

I’ve known men to love me and then give me up. It doesn’t take them much to discard me like used toilet paper. I’ve seen the ones who love me lose interest in me sexually. It happens over years and sometimes over months. I guess that is true of most relationships. But it’s always sad to be the one who gets faded out first.

I wonder what it would take for someone to be completely compatible in at least one aspect of the relationship. I’ve been hearing quips about age. Then there are comparisons to my way of cooking in which I fall short. There are incompatibilities in bed. I am left to wonder who doesn’t like kissing? I mean anal sex is preferable to being French kissed and that sets my alarm bells ringing.

But through it all I doubt myself. It’s never the other. I find myself lacking. That’s what happens with love. We revert the accusations. This self hate pierces directly in my heart and character. Has the abuse from my father and the lack of a male figure in my life made me incapable of seeing myself worthy in the eyes of any man? That’s a very scary thought.

I look at myself in the mirror and I see someone who has a bad body and a lopsided face. People on social media say I look magnificent. There are men I have met who want to wed me, bed me, the entire fucking deal. But then I know how that works. It all is roses and attention in the beginning. But eventually the roses die and the attention diminishes. So I am back to the mirror.

But is my self worth really in their hands? How they see me? Is my identity linked to whether I am fuckable? Or if I want the question to seem worthier, lovable? What is with me that I cannot see myself as a survivor?

I lived through abuse. Determined my sexuality with no help but my own research and knowledge. I faced bullies. I made my own way. I took care of my needs. I raised my fur kids. I braved heart break. I faced depression and anxiety for decades. I met death head on and battled the overwhelming sense of losing the loves of my life. I dealt with diseases I feared and I helped others through them. I shunned discrimination. I loved those who loved me and then some. I provided a safe haven in my own home and with my family for the men I love. I helped them to understand what it meant to be gay and accepted and loved. In the process, I understood love, loss and lust. I became who I wanted to be. I remained true to myself and showed that truth to the ones I loved.

So why the fuck do I give my power to the men I fall in love with? If it’s because of some thing my dad and I have to resolve then well, he’s dead. I probably need therapy to deal with that. So then, so be it.

Prevail

I understand what pain brings. It brings hope. Because ironically pain makes me realise I was in pain before. And it ended. It strikes and it is grievous. It struck earlier several times. From its experience I have learnt…

Pain doesn’t last. And after pain comes a resurrection. It brings to light some things that were previously unseen. Bluntly put, it brings a knowledge that nothing lasts. Good times don’t last. Bad times don’t last.

What is more there is the understanding that I shall prevail. If I just pull through the pain I will smile again. Good times will come. The sun will shine out the clearer. The moon will be brighter.

I keep fearing being alone. I keep fearing being abandoned. I keep fearing that the people I love will die or leave. But my fears, though founded in reality, are transitory. I have been alone. I survived. I have been abandoned, I survived. I have lost people I love – and I survived.

So, I know now. I will survive. Nothing is as bad as it seems. And therefore, I won’t just survive. I shall prevail.

Suffocate

It starts with a feeling of emptiness. Then it begins. You know that feeling when you’re on a Ferris wheel and the chair swings forward on the way down and you feel your body lift in the air? The feeling that your heart has left it’s cavity. Air forces its way into your stomach and you feel as though it’s going to feel like gravity in a second. But seconds pass and you’re not descending. You’re in stasis. In mid-air. No way of knowing how you’re going to get down. You’re hating every moment of being suspended.

You breathe. And no air fills your lungs. They feel empty. Everything inside feels empty. There isn’t even a vacuum. Everything is just hollow. You plummet for a second and you exhale. But then that feeling shoots up again. And you’re back in mid-air.

I feel that way all the time these days. I’ve been heart broken so many times I should be used to the catatonia. But you see it’s not a heart break. It’s falling in love that causes this anxiety.

I keep fearing that i’m going to lose it all. Just like I did earlier. I keep fearing I am going to lose my mother the way I lost my aunts in 2019 and 2021. I keep missing my sister who has left the city after marriage. I keep thinking that I am going to lose my furkids because I have lost four before.

The anxiety doesn’t seem to know logic. Philosophy of how a probably future shouldn’t affect the immediate present doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t trust life. I don’t trust love. I don’t trust myself. So how am I supposed to trust people who say they love me?

Have you felt this way? Have you managed to cope with these insecurities? How have you done so? Please, do share.