Sunday, October 08, 2006

New beginnings

Sometimes it is the little things that have the most effect on your life & sometimes it is things that have no apparent bearing on the eventual result that are most meaningful. By the second part, I mean even looking back it can be difficult to see how one act or decision can lead forward to what has eventually come about.

In my mid 40's I went through what i suppose could be called a crisis but it really wasn't very dramatic; I simply came to recognise that who I was didn't seem to have led me to a place where I had or would find my soul partner. I'd wanted all my life to share my life with someone but it never seemed to work out. So I came to terms with dying alone, with being lonely on a deep level, of not ever being able to look forward to sharing my life & thoughts with that special someone we dream of in our teens.

Then, as is my wont, I reached out to help someone on the net. I've always been a helper - it has cost me friends more than once because quite a number of folk see the offering of advice or assistance as being some kind of put-down & even explaining my PoV about it doesn't help.

I see it as this: if I have some info or knowledge on something, as a friend or even acquaintance it is wrong of me to let someone step blindly into something or to make an error because they don't know my bit of info. They tend not to see it that way & assume I think they aren't competent or able to do what they are about to try.

But it is built into me to help. Years back I did a series of scenarios in a book about finding your purpose in life. Mine came out very clearly as helping others. I did a course called 'I could be anything I want, if only I knew what it is' & one question was, 'If you were guaranteed to be successful at it, what job would you want?' I double-checked it was MY definition of success & not some external one & after the others said things like 'chef,' 'astronaut,' 'artist' etc, the instructor asked me. Without hesitation I said 'world leader' & there was a sort of shuffling noise as people edged their chairs away from me. *grins*

But my reasoning was simple - if I was a successful world leader, everybody would have a better life & a chance at achieving their goals/purposes, because that's what I would consider a success in that job.

So I tried to help someone. Long story cut short is they turned out to be a nasty fake, a manipulator of others & a liar. But, & it is an important but, via that person I met another troubled soul, one who was losing her battle to see a decent future & wieghed down by the past. I reached out to her as well & we talked.

Very quickly I saw a special person, a bright soul mired deep in trouble; trouble that mostly she couldn't see & didn't have causes for. There was immediate attraction but due to age differences I refused to consider anything coming of it - until she 'slapped' me with a poem & made me realise how stupid I was to pass up on something that could be so good.

Time passed & things got rough. I had no idea why but somehow no matter what I did our relationship teetered for months on a fine edge. I felt like if I said or did the slightest thing wrong, she would vanish, smoke her way out of my life & possibly do herself harm. Nothing I said seemed to alleviate things much - we had several breaches & repairs but the repairs didn't seem to stick.

I had enough experience I should have worked it out sooner than I did. When two people honestly try to sort out a problem & keep failing, SOMEONE IS KEEPING IT GOING! That turned out to be the case with us.

The liar, the person we both thought of as close to us, was manipulating frantically, lying her arse off to drive wedges between my love & me & even doing the same with another very close friend who had been through a lot of the earlier stuff with us & helped us enormously. It was a turbulent time for the 3 of us.

Then, finally, we shared some info - things that had been said or sent individually but not passed between the 3 of us & we saw the enemy for what it was. There followed an emotional period as we all came to terms with how much we'd been lied to & manipulated & then we began to heal.

Now, within just a few days, the woman I fell in love with over a year ago is coming to Australia to be with me. She leaves behind a life that was driving her to her death & gathering her courage to step out for a new beginning. From here on her life will be very different to what she has been through & so will mine. How it will turn out is uncertain, but then when did anyone ever promise us certainties in life?

I do know that no matter how things go between us, she will have a better life & the best start I can give her. That is a promise I have made, not to her, but to myself.

So, from deciding to help a person in trouble, I now have a new future. I get tight inside when I think how easily I could have missed out on this chance, how close I came to looking at our ages & refusing to accept there could be something serious between us. I think I have saved her life a couple of times, mostly just by being there for her, but she has given me a whole new future.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

*hugs* still seems unreal.

I love you.

me