stress – Page 99 – hannah ananas

The Music

What would I be without music?

So many vocabulary words, concepts, and emotional states were learned through Disney songs in my childhood… that free, full, and flying experience I feel in so much of John Denver’s music… the inner pain of Jim Croce’s “Operator”… the joyful youth found through Backstreet Boys and N’Sync… the easy, fun anger of Avril Lavigne… the empowering, flowing connection with the divine found in so many religious and spiritual songs… the calm, determination I find in Enya… the uplifting tears of “Claire de lune” (on piano, not orchestra)… the fears felt in Fantasia 2000… the hoppy joy of Steve Martin on the banjo… the expression of my own anguish, released in Superchick’s “Beauty from Pain”… the community through loss in The Dixie Chicks’ “Travelin’ Soldier”… the rush of delight up my spine from “Rhapsody in Blue”… and every emotion I have ever known, each found in this song or another, somewhere perfectly expressed…, if even in my own music… dancing allowed and encouraged by music… connecting with others through music, through making music together, through sharing music… spoken languages learned through music… things memorized, facts and stories learned through music… not to mention the constant whistling…

I don’t know where or what I would be without music, but I cannot imagine it would be much of a place worth being…, and I cannot see myself anywhere in it – so much of who I am is from and found in music…

It is, in a way, my life… music…

That and gelato… 😛

Nah, that’s just a joke, but it reminded me of the lovely stracciatella I discovered in Rome, which is something I would like to bring back into my life. 😛

Joking aside, though, much of my life has been formed by music… so many memories of listening to and eventually singing along to musicals in the car with my mom when I was little, playing music with my extended family at gatherings, listening to music with my tape player or walkman or CD player during car rides, dancing – especially dancing – all the time… these are all precious memories for me, and they all are, though it may seem unlikely, moments that impacted who I was and who I became out of the situation… and strongly so…

Music is everywhere for me; around me, within me… it is a huge part of who I am.

And I am extremely grateful for it.

There is so much more I would like to say on this specific topic, but, after a three and a half hour distraction that started at 22:58 tonight, I really just need to go to sleep, instead… so, I finish for now with the following:

And I say thank you for the music

The songs we’re singin’

Thanks for all the joy we’re bringin’

Who can live without it,

I ask in all honesty

What would life be

Without a song or a dance

What are we

So, I say thank you for the music

For giving it to me

-ABBA

Post-a-day 2020

What a day(!!!)

Today was my cousin’s birthday, March 8th.

I spent it in one of my favorite places in life: inside a theatre during one of their final rehearsals.

I absolutely loved where I was.

I trusted myself to be myself, and I was myself.

And then(!) (And Thennnn, and, gentlemen, and Theeennnnnn!!!), I asked out one of the actors.

Yep.

I actually did that, asked someone to go out with me.

I met him over a year ago, and wanted to date him instantly, but he was unavailable.

I placed the desire and the somewhat intense, actually, longing way off to the back and side of my mind, and I moved onward in life, only just slightly and occasionally wondering a version of, ‘What if…?’ around him.

And then, this Friday, I learned that he was not in that committed relationship from over a year ago anymore.

And my heart and lungs did a sort of flex and surge simultaneously, and I suddenly couldn’t stop wondering if he were seeing anyone at all now…, if he might not be available…, if he might have the potential of being interested in me…

For I was clear that I was still interested in him.

I’m pretty sure I wrote about him on here, even, and I still would say the same points of interest again now – if not even more. (Yep, I totally did, though only briefly.)

And so, after rehearsal, I called him to the side, away from anyone else – because I was not having this conversation with anyone else around, but I could not let myself go another two days without knowing, without doing something about this possibly spectacular opportunity that had just presented itself to me – and I asked him if he was seeing anyone right now (“Nope”), and then asked him out (“Yeah. Definitely.”), and it was terrifying and relieving and totally lovely.

When my mom came walking past shortly afterward – I had been on-task for her, helping with props, when I had talked to him, and I still was working (not terribly distractedly) when she came by – I said to her only, “I asked him out,” and she chuckled slightly.

“And?” She knew whom I meant.

“Yeah. Definitely.” I couldn’t even try to hide the smile on my face, if I had wanted, it was so big. 😛

After we’d finished all of our tasks for the night, and my mom was accompanying me as I unlocked and readied the Vespa, she looked him up OnLine(!), and started telling me facts all about him… as if it weren’t already going to be hard enough for me not to think about him constantly for the next 48 hours until I see him again (and then, who knows how long after that, too), now she was feeding me all the stalker girl information I could want (and would have barred myself from researching myself, because I never research a person I actually like)!

So, that was nuts but delightful.

All of it, actually.

What’s more, I’m pretty sure he’s younger than I am (though not by much), so I’m kind of rocking the cougar train, I guess… makes it all the more fun, I dare say…, because it truly is fun…

For the first time, I feel like I am truly trusting and being myself fully in such a situation with a man – I have spent so much time being worried around men, for all sorts of reasons, and tonight, at last, I was comfortable with myself and confident in myself FULLY…, and I acted accordingly, and asked out what seems to me to be an amazing man.

At the very least, he keeps eye contact in conversation, and it melts your heart every time (well, mine, anyway).

Eat your heart out… 😛

(I mean that as an endearing phrase from a beloved film, and not as anything else, just so we’re clear.)

Man…, I am so freed for myself, and joyed at my being myself – go you, Banana.

I love you, and I am so proud of you for taking care of you today.

My kakizome for this year are 自信と心 jishin to kokoro Self-trust/Self-confidence and Heart… they are my intentions, my goals, my points of practice for the year, and I really experienced and emulated them today and tonight.

No matter what specifically happens with him, this is all going to be great, and it is definitely a beautiful step for me in being the person, the woman, I want to be. 😉

Bravery and Beauty, Banana… bravery and beauty… 🙂

Wow… what a day.

Happy Birthday to my Cousin, and Happy Day to Me!(!!!!!!!!!!!) ❤

Post-a-day 2020

Love, love, love me, myself, and I

Wow… people really do like me.

And I mean me…

Not some fancified, put-on version of myself… just the real version, myself, me.

I met some people yesterday, some for the first time and some for not the first but a not-long-after-first time, and I just was myself – I was free to be myself, and I was just that.

And it was easy.

And I was surprised at how much certain of those people seemed to like me.

Today, I continued to let everything else be out of the way, and I was simply myself, without concern about it – almost without even thinking about it or noticing it – and, well, I had even more people express clear like of me, some of them blatant and direct about it… others subtle and indirect about it, yet still very obvious to me… they like me.

Me.

And it seemed like, for some of them, anyway, they like me a lot…

Wow.

It has me wonder about when I am interested in a guy and he doesn’t seem to be interested in me… there are plenty of wonderful people who genuinely like and love me for exactly who I am…, perhaps, if this guy isn’t interested in me, in who I am, then he just isn’t worth it, isn’t worth the time and consideration from me…, because I am amazing, and there will be amazing people to love me, always… I believe that.

If this guy doesn’t love me, then maybe he isn’t meant to love me – maybe his focus is meant to be elsewhere for some reason or other, allowing me to have my own focus elsewhere, not on him… so just let it go, and move onward…

I guess…

At the very least – and what I think is most important here, now that I am getting to it – I would do well to remember that I am not only lovable and likable, but I am loved and I am liked, even if it isn’t by this particular person… I am worth it… just perhaps this particular relationship is not…

Yes, that… that is a very good point for me to make for myself and to remember…

🙂

People love me, for me… I can be myself, and life will be lovely and love-filled in my world, even and especially when parts seem to suck.

Yup.

Post-a-day 2020

Patience is a virtue

Two things:

1) I successfully, though unintentionally, convinced a room full of people tonight that I am 21/22 and fresh out of college… not sure how I feel about that exactly… I mean, sure, it’s funny to me, but I’m not sure if there isn’t anything else there, a concern, perhaps…

2) I looked into doing that scary but loving thing just now, and it is proving much more difficult than I had thought it would be… fortunately, I have someone who is likely to be a spectacular resource in the subject, and this is someone I can ask for this help… whatever the outcome, it is likely to create a whole new space to our relationship with one another, because the question I will be asking will lead necessarily to some intense and private information…, and, I think, show how 1) crazy I am and 2) loving I am… so, yeah… that’s likely to be really quite the unique experience when I get that opportunity… the struggle of it isn’t the matter of intimacy it could cause but the fact that I have to arrange myself to come into contact with the person in order to ask for the help in the first place, and that can be tough… and it will take patience, for sure…

::sigh

Life is nuts, and, though I totally love it, there’s a lot of nuts-ness in it, especially these days for me…

Oh, well… here goes, anyway(!).

Post-a-day 2020

A call to love

I am feeling more and more clearly called to go do a specific something that, though it sounds crazy, seems and feels good to do…

The circumstances that keep coming to mind around the event are a bit unusual for me, but I am not opposed to them – I accept that they are entirely possible, and, even possible to go exactly as my mind keeps glimpsing them to me.

I am being vague, but it is merely for the privacy that I believe another deserves.

We are all, after all, humans, and I believe, as Thomas J. and the rest said so long ago, that being human has certain unalienable rights… including, in my words, a right to love and to be loved.

And so, with that thought in mind, I pursue gently this lead that keeps popping into my head… if it works out easily, it is meant to be; if I end up fighting in the matter, I trust that I am meant to let the idea go.

It is not always easy to act with love being the first in mind, the guiding force…, but I believe with my whole experience, my whole life, my whole being, that love is truly the way to go about it all, 100%… and so, I persist.

I shall give love, and I shall listen to God and the silent whispers of the angels around me to guide me to the best way that I can give love in this particular situation (and in all others, but I am acutely aware of this one at the moment), and I will do my best to do whatever that is.

Fingers crossed, prayers out there, God help me to love truly.

Post-a-day 2020

Accepting love

“You never answered my question… If I ever end up in trouble, can I say that you are my lawyer?”

Leaning against the wall, part stretching and part supporting a tired body post-workout, he shakes his head slowly, looking down.

He turns his eyes to me, and says calmly, “I’m all yours,” still slowly shaking his head.

………

And it is a form of love I have only recently been able to acknowledge and to allow myself to experience and embrace, this statement of his.

He is not trying to get anything out of me… he just loves me.

But I can see it now: people love me, and for me.

Not for anything else – not for my ability at the gym, or how quickly or effectively I can quip, or how much money I make, or what work I do… people love me for me, for what is inside, and for what I bring forth to the world around me just by letting everything else go and being genuine and true…

People love me, and honestly so.

Post-a-day 2020

Perfect timing: a quote

This makes perfect sense! I got so stuck in my troubles, I didn’t even think to consider that this might be the case.

Fortunately, I came across this by a crazy string of atypical steps just now, and have read it.

This is my life right now!

No wonder I feel so totally and absurdly insane… ‘How was your birthday?’… Commence practically breaking down into tears at my confusion as to how to answer… ‘It was okay, I guess…, good, even…, but I’m such a mess inside my head right now, I hardly can focus beyond this morning, let alone a few days ago, and the stress of my current brain agreements is driving me insane, and I just feel kind of worthless and a total failure about half the time right now…’

Not exactly the way to reply to such a question, right?

Anyway, it’s what has kind of happened… multiple times…

But the quote tonight has it all make sense to me suddenly, and in a way I am almost surprised I hadn’t considered already, as it is typically the kind of thing I would consider.

This was the quote I read:

Every time you embody life light, it brings up unprocessed emotions and situations that still need to be shifted from the past. We level up, then take a few steps back in order to transcend the stuck energy. You are not regressing – this is part of the growth process.

(Slight edits in punctuation were made by me.)

(Posted by M. Savino, and shared further by a friend of a friend)

Post-a-day 2020

Flaws and all

I – of course, because there seems to be little else I think about these days that isn’t connected to this general topic – was thinking tonight and today about what I am still not doing to be the person I want to be, in the sense of attracting the person I want to attract.

You know, be the kind of person you want your partner to be attracted to, right?

So, today at lunch, a family friend and I were discussing briefly his desire to learn German.

He said he needed a German girlfriend, because that was really the best way to learn a language, was to have a boyfriend/girlfriend who speaks that language natively.

I laughed and rolled my eyes a bit, telling him that I know everyone always says that, but we both know that I am extremely picky about men, so that has never been a very effective method for me.

(He, upon reading my palms the last time we had lunch, informed me that I not only was picky about men, but extremely picky, and then even compared the relevant marks to his own, for emphasis… it was hilarious yet utterly unsurprising to me – I already know that it is rare for me to be genuinely interested in someone.)

I then added that it makes it all the worse when I am interested in someone, and he is not interested in me.

The family friend then tells me that, well, there are always ways to turn it…, to turn the guy’s perspective and attention.

Now, I very much dislike the idea of manipulating people, however, this led me to the question of what I could ‘turn’ about myself, so to speak, so as to show up differently for this guy in whom I find myself interested – frankly, a bit absurdly interested.

In what ways am I not fulfilling being the person I want my future partner to be attracted to?

And so that thought led me to my consideration of my current position, sitting somewhat sprawled on the floor of my bedroom, leaning on a metal laundry basket with a pile of laundry overflowing on the other side of it, some laundry soap nuts and a book to my right, my feet propped next to a letter and a cowboy hat on a plastic storage container of sweaters, a foot roller and drum on my left, and a tube of henna hiding casually in its semi-temporary place on the floor beneath my legs… and, of course, the rest of my room out behind me comes to mind… my room is quite the miniature explosion, I must admit.

And I think that is what I am not yet doing to be the person – I have still not cleaned up my room (organized is really the appropriate word for it, for everything is clean, just a little scattered and, well, explosion-like).

And then it occurred to me that maybe that isn’t it… You see, I love having things organized and in their proper, logical places…, yet I do a terrible job of making that happen consistently.

I want to be that person who already has everything organized and in its place.

But I’m actually not that person, not right now.

One day, I hope to be that way.

But what if I stopped judging myself so terribly harshly at my not being that way now?

What if I simply acknowledged that I am not there yet, and I allowed myself to be as I am – to be messy?

It’s always phases, anyway… progressively messier, and then a sudden burst of organizing and sorting of everything, making it that much better than it was to start before the mess began this past time…

If I continue along this road as it is already, I will reach pretty darn organized in not too long, anyway, I am improving so much every time and the organizing phase happens sooner and sooner and goes better and better each time…

When I really think about it, I am not very organized in my room, and I like organization.

If I forced myself to get organized – for it would be just that, forcing – and then met someone, I can tell already how intense a pressure I eventually would feel at having to maintain the organization in front of him, simply because that was the side I declared so proudly of myself: I am organized and orderly.

And it would feel so false, having to maintain that.

I want my partner to know that I want order, and also that I have to work to have order, and that I sometimes might just need to spread everything out around me and embrace some chaos…

To go back to the start of this thinking, I want to be someone who is comfortable with who and how she is, and who is not ashamed of herself in any way, and who embraces herself fully, while striving and working always towards being her best self in every moment.

So, perhaps it is time for me to allow that I am messy, and I want to be organized.

And that I don’t have to be one or the other – I can be and truly am both. 🙂

So, yeah… anyway, I’ve had a headache almost all afternoon and evening, and I spent some intense time cleaning and organizing some stuff that has been sitting for quite some time in boxes in corners, stressing me out… so, I’m glad I did that, but I’m also glad that it is okay for me not to want to do any more right now.

I want to love myself, flaws and all.

And I want him to do that with me, too.

So, I am now tasking myself with loving and appreciating me for my flaws specifically for a bit, and considering how they just might not be flaws at all… yikes… here goes(!).

Post-a-day 2020

Abs (olutely not?)

Okay, I think I need to get back on the “Hannah has a totally absurd and almost stupid diet” train again…

I’ve been kind of upset lately to varying degrees, ranging from slight annoyance to total disappointment, regarding my physical fitness.

I’ve found these gorgeously fit people, you see, and, while I love having them in my life, it has made me acutely aware of every thing I consume and of how far away I am from being anywhere near their level or the level at which I truly want to be with my own physical fitness.

Part of me just feels like it isn’t in the cards for me to be at the point I truly want… and more so in that it seems like it would take what I currently consider to be an unnatural and extreme degree of control and monitoring of every single food and beverage I consume, combined with intense and strict exercise plans at all times in my life…, than about that it isn’t physically possible.

I genuinely think it is possible to have the belly I want.

It just seems like so much work, combined with a degree of impracticality for sustaining it… and I worry I would feel even worse having obtained it and let it go than by not ever having had it…

But then…, well, isn’t that just a way to avoid doing work under the guise of something else, and is it not just a way for me to avoid putting myself in an exposed and vulnerable situation?… and in a potential amazing situation…?

As Marianne Williamson suggested, am I really just afraid of how amazing I would be, if I truly went for it?

The fact that my eyes are tearing at this last thought suggests a powerful affirmative…

I am afraid of being so spectacular and still being unloved, rejected, not good enough… at least now, at my not best, being rejected and unloved can have an excuse of my not being at my best…

But who I truly am, underneath it all and at my source as a being on this planet and in this life, that being wants me to do it, to go for it, and to be my best…

Okay… let’s do this somehow… I love you, and I know you can do it…, and so do you. 🙂

::big sigh

LFG. ❤

Post-a-day 2020

Some thoughts not wasted

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, they always said.

This morning at breakfast, I was very bummed when I asked if my food could possibly be heated, since it was served cold (and just tasted terrible cold), and I was informed first that it could be, but then told that the plate was being re-made… so wasteful…

When it was re-served only slightly warm and significantly worse made, I didn’t dare say anything about it, and instead just wrapped it up to take home for one of us to eat later, after we could warm it ourselves.

Tonight, we had some king cake after dinner, and it was far too dry for me to be interested in eating it beyond a couple bites or so.

But no one wanted to take it home to finish, and none of us had anyone at home with whom to share it anyway.

So, I was curious when I crossed a kind-looking man on a street corner during my drive home.

I rolled down my window, called out, asking him if he wanted some cake, and was delighted to see his face light up, and to hear him answer with a genuine and surprised, emphatic, “Yes!”

I handed him the box of a more than 3/4 king cake, and wished him well as he thanked me.

It made me want to go back and spend some time with the man, and I even felt bad that I didn’t give him water to go with the cake.

(I mean, it isn’t painfully dry or anything – I just really only like king cake when it is super moist on the inside.)

I considered bringing him water, actually, but then saw the absurdity of it, and left it for now… I don’t exactly have the money to be driving back and forth, anyway.

I also found myself thinking about the safety level of going and spending time with him – I often want to do this with people, homeless people typically, but have learned not so nicely that there are often chemical imbalances that can provide an unsafe environment for me if I were to go spend time with the homeless people around town… not always, but often enough to make me reconsider most of the time…, which kind of bums me out… also, I’m afraid of being stuck with really bad smells, which then sends me into a whole ‘nother level of looking for what I could do to help, and then having to manage keeping myself safe…

Anyway, the whole thing reminded me of how one of the most valuable things we have to offer in life is our attention.

People always say “time”, but I think they really mean “attention”.

I can give you an hour my time, but never once pay attention to you, versus give you ten minutes of full attention, and I think the latter will win every time for being the most appreciated.

Sure, things like laying bricks would prefer the former, but when it comes to people-to-people interactions, it is or attention that we all most desire and most need… it is through our conscious attention that we share the most love with others, not just our showing up.

Like someone said after a dance thing the other weekend – he noticed that I kept to myself and didn’t really talk with many people, but that I took genuine interest, asked real questions, and waited for real answers whenever I talked with him… I spent a lot of time on the room, making little impact on anyone, but ten minutes of talking with him directly had a huge impact on him.

I’ve kind of gone off the initial idea here, but I guess that’s how ideas work, anyway, always linking us to different connections, one after another, always and forever…

Which makes me think of brain storming… what a storm it is… debris flying every which way, leaving it difficult to find the origins of certain things, they fly so fast at times, and cross so many turns and twists in the system of the brain, in the storm…

I guess the biggest difference between a brain’s storming and nature’s storming is that the former usually gives us solutions, and the latter often gives us problems… haha… that’s funny… I’m going to continue thinking on brain storming…

Post-a-day 2020