So I had a wonderful time visiting my sister's family for the holidays! and I can't tell even a fraction of my favorite things about the time I shared with them. And not just because I'm terrible at picking favorites (I can't even pick a favorite color, just lots of shades I love differently for their different isness -- if I ever tell you that anything about you is my favorite, just know it's a big deal coming from me) but also because there were just too many delightful wonderful moments packed into those two weeks for me to even begin the storytelling at this point! Best I can do you is a vague, "Yeah, I had a great time!" with no further elaboration because you ain't got time or interest for all the words of all the little anecdotes of why I had such a great time, lol. (I got there on the first night of Channukah, on the 14 and spent until the 29 with my family -- my flight was technically a red eye out at like 12:55am on the 30th but kiddos have bedtimes so we did dinner at Resonate in Bellevue and then they dropped me off at SeaTac right around normal bedtime before they drove home and I had like 5 hours or so to entertain myself. Somewhen before covid I started traveling with my travel kettle (a silicone collapsible kettle) and a real cup I like drinking out of (the first time this was an accident because my sister gifted me a ceramic mug so I had it with me and then I realized how much nicer it is to drink out of a real mug not a disposable one while traveling) in my carry-on when I fly as well as always having tea in my purse/carry-on just a year or so after I bought my collapsible travel kettle to start bringing it for roadtrips (because in the states most hotels don't have kettles and the coffee makers make REALLY gross coffee flavored tea no matter how many times you try to run them with just water.) It's absolutely a game changer in my opinion to have my own kettle, especially for later night or early morning flights when most of the stores/cafes are closed, because I can refill my water bottle easily and finding an outlet isn't THAT hard these days especially if you have the time to find a gate not in use in the near future, and then I can just brew myself a nice hot cuppa tea and gift myself a little bit of cozy hygge zen to ground and center me in the midst of being surrounded by frenetic chaotic stressed humans. It's a small thing, but it absolutely shifts my ability to let the stress of the other humans wash around me but not through me so I can stay my happy cheerful self filling the air around me with my uplifted tranquil powerful energy not get all wound up by the external stressors of others. You can get a travel kettle for like $15-50 depending on how much you want to spend and they're really worth it if you find hot tea to be a calming grounding experience in your life. (though it looks like ones of the design I bought and like best (I spent a LOT of time going through the styles before buying) are like $70-150 now or used they're still showing up as like $50...)
It was really great to have extended time with my sister's family -- on the global scale Washington isn't THAT far away from Wisconsin, but it's still not a daytrip of a drive (not even by Midwest standards, lol) and so they're always a flight away (or like 40 hours of driving which is a multi day drive when driving it by yourself like the last time I did the drive between their home and my own.) I will see them next in August for sure (even if their trip DOES overlap with my Irish season and so choices will have to be made between actual blood family and my Celtic chosen family. But that's a later in the year me problem -- almost nobody is even announced yet for who will even be stateside for Milwaukee this year and given the work visas getting pricier and lengthier wait times and just general difficulties even for white musicians from Ireland/UK/Canada to come to the US be able to commit to festivals so they can get the visas which they can't get until they have the shows/fests booked....) But it was nice to have a solid 15 days staying with them (which my sister told me was still too short; which she tells me every visit no matter how long I stay Apparently, her feelings on it are she wants me to stay until she's so sick of me she can't miss me -- which my brother-in-law told her, "That only works with people you actually get tired of. Dani is really hard to get tired of having around and very easy to miss in her absence." and my sister replied to him, "Yes. that's my point. That's why she just should never leave us. She should just move in. Let's build her a guest house in the backyard to live in with all her books and dog." It was very interesting being there because they not only have Amazon Prime order everything delivered but they're now on Vine which is where you can order curated things for free (you just pay the estimated taxes) and then you write reviews of them and they're at the tier they can get 8 things a day so they do a LOT of online shopping/browsing get a LOT of packages every day. It has made their holidays even more materialistic overwhelming amount of presents --it takes a full day to get through all the stockings and the gifts I can pack then nearly a week to get through all the larger "under the tree" type presents.... It's a LOT and my sister likes to shop and troll and she is a Virgo sun with a Pisces moon and rising -- so she's VERY detail oriented good at finding things people will like and organized about making it happen accumulating things over a long time -- and Vine just increased opportunities for her to get things that people will enjoy and/or laugh at. It does make sense for a large family, especially with three kids constantly growing but it's still a lot more constantly acquiring new things delivered to their door than the way I live my life. They more than out balance me as close to off the grid without living in a cabin in the woods with my low carbon footprint as I am (no internet at home, don't buy into any streaming services, buy as much of my food as possible that I don't grow/forage myself or family/friends grow/forage at local farmer's markets/cheesemongers and csa and pick your own farms, drive a Prius I bought used with low mileage but is from a decade ago, refuse to use AI find it annoying af having it intrude on my life before we get into the environmental waste issues of it, I use/reuse everything until it literally falls apart can't be repaired any longer, I don't buy many things except books and music and crystals and tea and art/art supplies and wines/whiskeys and occasionally swords/knives and tarot/oracle decks.) Just very different ways to navigate the materialism of the modern world.
I'm not good at picking favorites and I love all my niblings differently but same intensity although I probably feel closest to Monroe right now, but part of that is her age and also our general personalities having similar interests. (Libras and Leos get along incredibly well as long as they respect each others boundaries/feelings, both of them are artistic want other people to be their happiest shiniest self with minimal interpersonal friction and they both genuinely have a magpie like delight in self expression via external aesthetics. They're generally considered two of the most compatible besties signs and it's usually a misunderstanding/miscommunication that causes friction/separation not malice or actual dislike. Leos who don't respect a Libra's sense of justice/fairness as being a genuine feeling will run into difficulties and Libras who don't respect the intensity of Leo's wounded egos as a genuine feeling get into difficulties. But usually a genuine apology will fix just about anything between a Libra and a Leo as long as it's clear the apology (and changed behaviors) come from truth in the heart not just lip service.) Ellie the youngest is a toddler and there are some reasons that she is much more introverted does her own thing lives in her own world is generally very happy living her best life but that's not my story to tell. Jack (the oldest) is most intensely interested in Pokemon and Rubik's Cubes/clock puzzles and building Legos and I just really can't get into the first two as intensely as he does and he likes to do the entire build himself so I just can hang out with him while he does the build -- he and I tend to bond over reading quietly in the same space and sports (playing and watching/discussing and making up random games) most specifically soccer and American football and playing HORSE but not actual basketball, lol. He's very intense and passionate and driven (he's an October Scorpio) about everything he's interested in but they're very niche things and there aren't that many jock nerds out there to bridge his disparate interests. Monroe is 6 and she's very generous hearted girly creative with strong spiritual gifts so we make pink tea together and can do lots of arts and crafts together and paint our nails put on music to sing along to while they dry. Jack and Mo did both use some of their screen time (they both get tablet screen time during the others soccer/gymnastics classes, they get to have a certain amount of screen time after school while their parents are working though Weds (their short day) is educational screen time only and Fridays they can play Minecraft and then they have a punch card system in half hour increments for any further screen time) to watch 5 episodes of Avatar the Last Airbender with me (they're both OBSESSED with it and were very excited when I told them I'd never watched it but everyone who knows me well tells me I will love it even though I'm not super into anime) and then Mo was fixated on wanting to watch K-Pop Demon Hunters with me because she loves it so much and I hadn't watched it yet and she whispered to me when her parents weren't listening, "And Dani. I know you will love it. Because they do what you do. With the light lines and protecting and fighting demons and ghosts. But they sing to make it real while they do it." She and I watched it together on the 28 (and Jack got to play games on his tablet while we watched it for equal screen time and neither of them had to use punches on it.)
I did have an unexpected wave of sorrow crash into me from my inner space make me nearly cry while we were sitting there started watching K Pop Demon Hunters on Sun morning. I'm so busy when I'm out there that I don't have much time to myself or to listen to my own inner quiet while I'm out there. So why do I think that sadness might have been? Well. It didn't feel like it was mine, but it felt "almost mine" the way that everything down the bond echoes so loudly and deep resonance in my inner quiet spaces. And if that's true, it's probably my fault -- or at least partially my fault. You may have noticed that i set this back to private to authors (or maybe you didn't -- one should never assume ones own importance in the eyes of others) but whether you noticed it or not, it's a thing I did on Dec 23, the morning before Christmas Eve.
The same old reason, I unfollowed him on insta and set this to private because once again he shared a story I couldn't see. I don't even know what the content was he shared. (That's the daftest part: it doesn't matter the content or how I'd feel about the content he shares when this happens -- it's about how I feel when I see the message "this content is unavailable for you" and the spiral of realizing he doesn't care when he reminds me there's no welcome and no place for me in the most important parts of his life because of the bullying via ostracism choices made in 2018 that have never been acknowledged or healed or even discussed.) And the thing is, for most of my visit I would never even have seen it, never have known he shared it because I was hardly on my phone or checking socials during my visit. That morning I was standing by the kitchen counter steeping tea waiting on my timer for when to pull the teabag, and I had left my books downstairs and everyone else was getting ready for the morning and Chicken (their cat) wasn't circling my ankles asking me to play so I briefly hopped on socials to see what I might have missed recently. That's the when and how of me even seeing it.
And my immediate reaction was, "No! I have made it clear as I can that I am not going to stay stuck in these patterns. I am not allowing this to affect my joy in my life as I am living these moments. If this "you can't sit with us" reminder is what you're offering, then I don't want your profile in my feed. If that's all you have to offer me, then I release you to whatever you are choosing to build your life around and the happiness you can find within those structures." And then I unfollowed him. And I set this whole thing to private immediately after unfollowing him because....because I refused to put any energy or attention into explaining what had shifted things inside me but didn't want this publicly to have so recently been on one course that now felt a lie.... I didn't want my silence to create a false sense that things were the same as when I'd last been writing here. I thought it better to take it all away, into a more complete silence until I was home again and ready to put energy into writing about the most recent tectonic shift.
Only. Then. Since the 23, everything has been a reminder making me think of him. My novels I packed was reading were a retelling of East of the Sun West of the Moon fairytale about a prince turned polar bear to be rescued by the maiden who will marry him regardless the enchantments/glamours that try to get between them. And then one of my favorite gifts from my sister are a set of ceramic coasters with mosaic/stained glass style polar bear paintings on them. And then last night I was catching up on emails saw that the Dec Behind the Door was made public so I watched it. And even like, my survey about my flights that came in, the from line is"Erik at Delta" with the subject line, "Daniella, help us Keep Climbing" and I was genuinely confounded by it when I saw it come in my inbox on New Years Day -- because it's genuinely the sort of synchronicity that beggars the limits of (im)probability because seriously wtf are the chances of that?!?! Because the books were my subconscious before I left home and the coasters were because my sister knows my love of polar bears and the choice to make that public happened before he shared the story I couldn't see so I spooked decided to let him go (even if I didn't open the email to know that until weeks later) -- but find me the logic and the odds that the email from the airline asking me to do a survey about my flight experience being addressed to me from "Erik at Delta" because that can't be rationally logically explained and the statistics of that chance are so improbable but that's what I found in my inbox... And synchronicity reminder nudges from the Universe just don't happen like that scripted into everyday quotidian normal lives of normal people... They just don't. But they constantly happen to me whenever I decide it would be best for me to let him go. And who knows what the Universe will do next to keep reminding me of him and the bond if I try to stay hard hearted ignore this blatant a synchronicity making me think on him want to lean into the temptation of the eternality of the bond and the warmth of love in its isness.
It makes me second guess that knee jerk reactionary of "No! This petty dynamic will not be allowed to affect any moment of my family time! I don't want to fall back into this toxic pattern with him again. Offer me something better or I'm out, HAGL" response I had on Dec 23. Because why should there be so many things reminding me of him trying to lead me back soften me back toward remembering the bond and the love woven through it and the good that's possible letting him in?
The thing is, now I've got myself sorted after the 28 hours of not sleeping followed by a migraine followed by New Years plans (with family/friends) I FINALLY have had some time for catching up on work and things I fell behind on and reflection. And. Here's the thing. It's very clear within me and I think I made it very clear across the last year that I am tired and done with repeating the patterns we've all got stuck in following the girls choices in 2018. And I am. I'm so done with it that I wonder if I'm repeating old reactionary patterns throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Because to be done with something refuse to keep repeating it, there's only two ways I know of to do that. 1) You do the hard but important work to heal what broke and decide from the healed perspective if you want to continue the relationships or gently let them go as no longer aligned but you make the choice from a healed place 2) You chuck it all in the fuck it bucket and walk away because you're so done with this shit that you're just going to leave it unhealed because you ain't got the time or emotional capacity to invest anything more in it. Now obviously the first is the BETTER way, but if you can't get to that point or find the cooperation from the rest involved in the breaking and/or who choose to be involved in the healing, sometimes the second is all you have available at the time. And the place I've been sitting since the day before Christmas Eve is to throw up my hands say there's nothing but the second option open to me if I want to stop repeating the old patterns. but the thing is, me reacting that way HAS been part of the cycles we got stuck in, the push me pull me of it. So now that I'm no longer in that immediate emotional reactionary "Nope. Not today Satan. Not having this petty girl bullying in my life. You have no right to steal any damn moment of my happiness in my lived life." I felt on the 23, I can't make myself believe that it's the only option, or even the right option, or the option anyone ACTUALLY desires... I can't help thinking it was just old patterns not thinking not realizing he was repeating them and me reacting the same way to the same impetus... And maybe that's just what i WANT to believe.... But it feels more true than believing he did it intentionally or realizing the consequences of my reactions to it -- that he didn't even think about my reaction until too late I can believe, but I find it hard to believe he thought about it and realized and did it anyway because he didn't care or he actively chose to want to take part in the "you can't sit with us" ridiculous bullying via ostracism dynamics that all things related to the Delta Rae insta account have been since Oct 2018. I don't believe so little of him to think it anything but an act of accidental carelessness rather than an act of intentional cruelty. And yet....
And yet no amount of beliefs gets you to truth, to knowing. Things are called faith because you can't know. But the things that lie between two souls can only become a relationship when they are matters of truth not of faith -- so long as they are built on faith they are just fantasies. And the faith wears thin with fantasies. The longer time passes, the more evidence you accumulate against it, the paucity of supporting evidence -- all these undermine melt away faith built on fantasies not reality until you have nothing to stand on but the thin ice you can see the sharks circling beneath your feet and the cracks spidering out as you're soon to fall into the cold shocks of reality as it is once that thinning faith disappears, the cold water that will steal your breath and trap you the wrong side of all the icy film of beliefs til it kills you.... That's what it feels like trying to hold onto believing in a faith that exists only as fantasies not reality the more time and circumstances are undercutting that faith thinner and thinner beneath your feet.
That's what it feels like right now to me. And sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be smarter of me to just get off the damn thin ice that I don't always believe can continue to hold me up and instead skate off to somewhere more stable where the ice and the reality are solid enough the same thing to hold me up where I can breathe and dream and believe in the beautiful improbable things that give sparkle to the living of a life.
The truth is I don't know what he wants. I don't know if he knows what he wants. And I have nothing but my own beliefs in the mirroring patterns and synchronicities to think that I'm any part of what he wants even if he's figuring that out for himself. I only have my beliefs and my faith in those beliefs is thinning the more time passes without anything in reality to support my belief and one of these days I fear I'll fall into the cold drowning embrace of reality as it is and not find my way back to the right side of the believing -- and if that's all that is on offer by trying to hold faith in the bond and the promise of it, then I'm a fool to stay on the thin ice instead of heading off to a faith more solid built into reality to keep me the right side of believing/dreaming.
It just sometimes seems such an exercise in folly to hold faith in believing a dream that has never shown itself becoming real..... And things like this, even if I'm right that they truly are an act of carelessness not an act of cruelty, they still make the ice feel even thinner and the cracks more visible to me and the risk of me falling through to the wrong side of believing/dreaming, the side where cold hard reality drowns you. They just do. Every time thinner and thinner ice that i don't think will hold me up on the side of where the soul can breathe. My soul is not a seal or a whale or a dolphin or a fish -- I can't survive for long on the wrong side of the ice, if I fall through it I'll only last as long as I can hold my breath and hope I can find somewhere else to pull myself back to the right side of the believing and the dreaming.... I'm not very good at swimming by the rules of this modern reality without the dreaming and carving out my own little bubble of whimsical magical living by my own beliefs on the other side of that ice -- on the side of the ice where the soul can breathe and dance and there's always the possibility of a dream that lifts you up soaring so you can fly once you learn to grow wings....
I don't know if I'm explaining it rightly... I'm using the language of poets and dreams to try to concretize explain the way it feels inside me and why every time I react by fleeing fast as I can far from him as the bond allows, like a startled doe trying to get to safety, whenever he does even a little action (even when his intentions were good) that makes him take active part in the "you can't sit with us" bullying via ostracism that exists with anything from the band's account since Oct 2018.... But it's the only words I have right now to try to explain the feel of it, the lyrical imagery is all I have to communicate the feeling. I'm sorry if it doesn't help make sense of it....it's just all I can offer to explain the way it feels to me these recent years.
I don't have better ways to explain the way it feels inside me for how tenuous thin actions like this render my belief in the bond and the love between our souls ever becoming manifest into reality.... It's just so hard for me to see a way for it to become true not just a matter of faith.... And it gets harder and harder the more time passes and the more he does anything that undercuts it with doubts.... And then the only thing that makes any sort of sense is to accept what I've been shown at face value and to run off to find something/someone anywhere else more solidly sitting on a faith rooted into reality where I can dance on the side of dreaming where the soul can breathe without falling through drowning in the coldness on the wrong side of believing, stay out of the side where reality kills someone like me if I stay there too long.
And I just don't have any way to even know the truth of even something that small was an act of carelessness or an act of intentional cruelty in him. All I have is just the thinning faith that I don't believe it's in his nature that he would be intentionally cruel toward me...
That's how much of a mess the choices of 2018 made of the paths to make real manifest the promise of the bond into real life quotidian... That's how fragile has become my belief that he could want it as intensely and deeply as I do.... And I hate that that's now any part of my truth how easily it could all be shattered no matter how much I desire it! But hating has as little effect on truth as believing...
And it's why every little thing will startle me off like the feral beast my heart has become since the choices made in 2018 have taught me to accept the idea that there's no place for me in his life so I'd best get used to what I find out in the wilderness to build my own life around.... Because what else is a soul and a heart to do other than turn untamed wild if you teach it there's no place that welcomes you in the life of the person who you would choose your life path with if you could? What did you think has been going on since Oct 2018? What did you think I was talking about when I said I've spent all these years fighting against accepting all the effects of that one choice point caused but I know I'm losing that fight trying to fight it all by myself?!
And.
Maybe.
Maybe the truth of it is (and always has been) that I'm fighting it by myself because I'm the only person it's ever mattered to...
And.
Maybe.
Maybe time is running fast into the bottom half of the hourglass of this life span and it's time I grew up enough to stop fighting, stop holding onto that last thin ice of my faith in what I always believed the bond promised and I should just give up on that dreaming for this life and wander off find a dream that's also dreaming of me that I can make real for the remainder of this life.
Maybe I should turn my face away from the bond and accept it as only a fantasy for this life and put my full energy into knowing I will see Martin again in February and focus on something real there to build on if he's still interested.
And maybe that's the worst choice I could possibly make and everything is closer to coming real than I can see from here but we're so close if I can just hold faith in him a little while longer....
And I just don't know. I don't. I can't see which of those last two maybes is true and which false. All I know is if I fall through the ice and get stuck too long on the wrong side of the dreaming into the reality so cold I'll drown in it. Because I'm not a fish, I need to stay on the side of the dreaming where there's dancing and the hope of someday growing wings to fly.
I'm sorry I can't make more sense than that of things right now. That's the tangle of emotions I have inside me this recent while in the best I can words it at this time....
P. S. I rather forgot that it was the Cancer full moon this morning. Water signs always make my emotions bigger but the tides of Cancer moons always feel like they pull me to some safe haven, somewhere that can be home even if only for the time it's safe.... Anyway, this was the post that resonated and reminded me which sign is always the Wolf Moon.
I don't know that it helps. Just that it's a part of what's woven into my truths and thoughts/feelings this morning -- like the unexpected not in the prediction models extra quarter inch of snow that started just after 8am, lol