RESPONSE TO THE STORM

See: I Respect the Storm, but It’s Yours below

by: Velinda

I don’t fully agree with this…

It depends on the Storm

I hope you’re not talking about addiction…which I assume you are.

I hope you’re not talking about children

And I hope you’re not talking about unconditional love

Who goes through life without experiencing a storm?

And yes, the storm is all about finding oneself, owning it, and rebuilding life

No, I don’t want to go down with someone who will not help themself.

No, I don’t want to go down with someone who created a story they refuse to acknowledge. You need to make a choice to leave that story behind.

I care too much about myself to let that happen.

But know that I’m here for you always, not as a lighthouse in the distance while I try to calm myself, but as a light in the dark that you can reach out to now.

It doesn’t matter if I understand your choices, your pain, your self-destruction; that is your issue to deal with. I’m still here for you because I love you and I don’t want to lose you. 

For what is life without the people we love?

Who goes through life alone? Life is about people…the people we love, the people we would do anything for, because that is the power of unconditional love. It is not enough for you to know that I love you if I am not here for you.

And who goes through a storm without needing that unconditional love to be there for them? We all need love and to know we are loved. To know there is at least one person we can turn to when we are hurting. Love is healing in itself.

Life is unpredictable, and we aren’t always prepared for the storms we encounter. Sometimes we lose ourselves temporarily because we are human. People lose themselves in love all the time.

Yes, I have my own pain, but it is not as strong as yours, and that is why I will be here for you to ride out the storm with you. I can’t determine the depth of need and pain for another when they are in the storm, but I can determine that this is where I want to be for now…with you until you can carry your own weight after you heal.

I don’t believe being there for someone is all about forgetting oneself. It is being there for that person because they need you to at the time. Who would walk away from someone they love when they need you the most? How would you feel if that person died?

And if we are talking about addiction, who gets through the hell of addiction alone? Isn’t that what rehab, AA, and sponsors are all about? Imagine getting through addiction alone…impossible for most.

However, if you choose not to help yourself, I will have no choice but to walk away because I can’t do it for you. Please don’t let that happen because you are the world to me, and I don’t want to lose my world.

I RESPECT YOUR STORM, BUT IT’S YOURS

(Fernado Fernando D’Sandi)

From the web

Credits to the author

Empty Center Album

There will be a time in life when you will have to look into the eyes of someone close — your partner, a friend, a brother — and say firmly and tenderly:

“I’m going to be honest with you. From now on I will no longer enter the whirlwind of your emotions. I respect them, I understand them, I even honor them.. but they’re yours, not mine. I can’t live them as if they were part of my soul, because in this journey I also carry my own emotional backpack, and it’s the only thing I can carry.

If you decide to stay in that storm, I will support you, always from my place, from my calm. I won’t leave you, but I won’t lose myself with you either. From here, from my center, I can be a lighthouse, not a ship that sinks with you. I love you, and precisely because I love you, I need to take care of my balance.

Loving is not carrying the weight of another’s life on your back; it is walking together, free, light, each owning its own storms. Love does not have to hurt more than necessary; love, when it is genuine, builds, not destroys.”

Sometimes, loving also means learning to say, “Here I am, but without forgetting myself.”.

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