Archive for emotions

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When The Rain Comes

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on August 25, 2023 by Her Broken Wing

“…… I have called you by by your name, you are mine. You are precious in my eyes, because you are honored and I love you…”
(Isaiah 43:1)

As I looked outside that particular morning, it looked like rain. Dreary. It resembled my life lately. Cloudy, dark, uncertainty.

Broken would best describe it…

A friend,,,,once said,”You are in a good place.” He meant, I was right where God wanted me. However, not what I wanted to hear when I was hurting. As a matter of fact, I think it made me angry at my friend, the world, life’s circumstances and yes, even God. It made me cry. The blubbering, snotty, chest heaving and ugly cry.

Time passes and I look back.

Now I can sit and smell it… The rain…The unperfumed pureness of my Father reminding me that His rain falls on us all. The just and the unjust, those who love God and those who have rejected Him. Those hurting and those who are broken.

Brokenness reminds me of the drowning man. The ideal time to save him where he doesn’t drown both the person making the effort to save him and the drowning man is when he is about to go under“……Otherwise, he will fight in his panic. Both shall perish.

Am I living as a broken man, living ready, reaching up to grab the arms of Christ as He calls my name?

All of us. This Reminds us of His promise of love.

My Beloved

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Jesus knew

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on April 3, 2023 by Her Broken Wing

How ironic Holy Week is. How sad but glorious. How promising. And How much love is poured out!!! 

All in the name of us prodigal children. 

Jesus’ back bent carrying the cross that we made Him carry. And yet Jesus said (Matthew 11:29) “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble…” His pain for our pain. 

Jesus ultimately carried the heaviest load, not just the cross but my sin.

Love that’s truly cruciform, is truly vulnerable enough — that the heart gets hurt.” Ann Voskamp (Sam)

I know what Holy Week means. Well on paper. Do I truly feel the emotion? The pain? The love? 

I’ve read the book. I know the ending. It would be a sad story without us knowing the ending. Spoiler Alert- Christ wins!

So reading further, it says Jesus walked into a realm of submission and surrendered to His Father. “Thy will be done…” (Matt 6:10) God let Jesus lay down His own life to bring us home. Gods Only Son. What love!

Jesus knew. 

It was an emotional gloomy week. He knew what awaited Him.  

I’ve had enough situations in my life that i had dreaded only to find out the outcome was worth it. Like my first day of sobriety. Thankfully, My life was saved through an intervention. But it saved my life. What if my life had not been spared? Would my purpose have been thwarted? How about those times where I eventually led someone to You, oh Lord and the time I baptized my mom. What would have happened if I had not been here? That may not even be the reason or my purpose. Maybe I will never know!

Like wise, what will my life ask of me?

I hear many times in the healing rooms, some of my hardest days will  come during my sobriety journey. I think about the disciples and their life sharing the love and resurrection of Jesus. It wasn’t easy.

I’ve seen myself get off the floor from fighting on my knees through prayer. I have laid prostrate begging to get sober, as well most days now on my knees having an intimate talk with God.

I just need to pick up my cross and walk. My God awaits me.  He is my love.

Oh yes, life is still out there!

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All The Kings Men

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , on May 25, 2018 by Her Broken Wing

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

I sometimes think whoever wrote children’s poem suffered  from major depressive disorder. If not, then I can totally relate to this poem anyway. As a matter of fact, I can associate with a lot of the childhood characters I grew up with.

There is Eeyore, OMG, he was sad all over–and was probably clinically depressed. I felt suicidal just watching poor Eeyore. Seriously, something bad must have happened to Eeyore as a child like he ran off a cliff with a bus full of kids or something.

And then there was Charlie Brown. He was dealt with a heavy dose of real life. Charlie Brown demonstrated the struggle, pain and downright misery of childhood. He never received a Valentine’s card. His dog could not remember his name. He was always picked last for the team. Basically, Charlie Brown is a loser.

And last, there was Olive Oil, Popeye’s girlfriend. she had one of cartoon’s first eating disorders. She was an anorexic. She never even ate Popeye’s spinach (unless forced to when she was completely unconscious due to some villain–like many of us with eating disorders will do)

It is no wonder that so many of us are screwed up. Look at the cartoon characters we grew up with. Adults that were most likely crazy (OK clinically diagnosed) wrote the scripts. And thus predisposed us to what would inevitably become our future. No, I’m not saying the cartoons caused this…just saying that our world in which we lived in…

“All the kings horses…” The Doctors, Psychiatrist, Therapist could not put us back together. We became society’s misfits–living in hell within our soul–tormented constantly.

Gloom and doom. Our vision skewed by our depression glossed glasses.

For even on Eeyore’s happiest day (Birthday) he could not muster up a happy sentiment. For maybe, I am not much different. I always wait for the shoe to drop and if it does not, I will perhaps throw the shoe myself.

If it isn’t enough to worry…I worry about tomorrow when today hasn’t even passed. Old Mother Hubbard was so poor her cupboards were bare. What will I do if tomorrow doesn’t provide? Yes, I worry.

And then there is us alcoholics. Homer Simpson. “Beer” the cause of and solution to life’s problems.” He kids that beer is for daddies and kids with fake IDs.  My husband says the difference between alcoholics and drunks…one goes to meetings. I go to meetings. I am an alcoholic, recovering drug addict.

The Lord says, Worry not. Matthew 6:26 “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

I try to believe… to trust… I even pray about it… Mark 9:24 “…I do believe; but please help my unbelief.”

Today, I stumble, I fall and I wait. For the King—Jesus to put me together again.

me

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Saving Myself From Me 2

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on April 26, 2018 by Her Broken Wing

Sav
Self-Forgiveness comes. Especially if we wait. Sometimes we must wait a long time and even may fear it will never come. But look 2 Corinthians  5: 17 says,”therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!”

I used to think forgiving someone was the hardest thing and oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s harder than soothing my colicky baby. It’s hard. However, even harder is forgiving myself.

For a while I had given up trying to forgive myself. It just wasn’t going to happen. I deserved to be punished. Punishing myself through negative coping mechanisms such as the silent treatment, self-loathing, feelings of unworthiness, depression and withdrawal. Really I didn’t want to forgive myself. Why? I didn’t deserve it.

At one time in my life, I felt totally like a burden to my family. For 15 years I had caused them heartache from drug addiction, eating disorder, rehab, self-harm, severe depression, PTSD from being sexually abused and the list goes on. I am a mess. No wonder I drank and drugged that later led into other addictions.  I reflect back on Sins of the Mother. A writing I posted earlier. I tried to ease the pain. I tried to end all the hurt. But instead, I caused even  more pain for my family. It wasn’t in God’s plan. I’ve learned a lot since then but I’m still working on forgiveness for what I did to my family. Not that I should “work”on forgiveness. It’s a done deal, right! I just have to let forgiveness in.

Jesus revealed over and over that my sins, my imperfections, and disobedience were washed away by the blood on the cross. I just had to embrace it. I had to learn to live a life blessed without bitterness, harmful, negative and resentments toward me!

In AA, we forgive others to help us stay sober. It’s a one-way street. I forgive you but it’s without expecting an apology in return. We stay sober that way. Even the Bible doesn’t say anything about expecting an apology. So, what about forgiveness of ourselves? What about forgiving me? I don’t talk about that. It’s the same, though! I would guess.

God shows us God-nuggets of forgiveness in mysterious ways.

A few nights ago my son talked to his dad and I about his graduation from nursing school next week. He has his pinning one day next week. The pinning is done by faculty. So that night my son said, “mom will you pin me.” I was speechless. Tears welled up. Tears of all the pain I had caused my family,  I fervently prayed for forgiveness. Then remembering I was forgiven,  I looked up to God and said thank-you. He Showed me that all the years of heartache were wrapped up in a tight bundle and tossed behind the cross where his had Son died.

Romans 8:1 “ Therefore, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

God, let’s continue this journey.

Another God-nugget: What a beautiful generation that is passed on. His great grandma was a nurse, his grandma, his mom and now him. Pretty cool, huh?

So, Lord help me to continue to forgive me! Oh Abba Father, the work was already done, please show me how to love me with the same sweet love  you have for me shown at the Cross . I am forgiven.

I can not earn nor do I deserve His forgiveness… it just is.

❤️ Me

 

”In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift…” Brennan Manning

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Parting of the Red Sea

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , on February 24, 2018 by Her Broken Wing

Billy Graham
The Legend
(1918-2018)

Estimating he reached over 150 million people with the Word of Christ

I was a little girl when I first learned of Billy Graham and actually saw him in person. My (older than me but not by much) uncle grabbed me by the hand and took me down to the “altar”. We professed our faith, or he did. I didn’t know what to think of all of it. Today I look back and I am sad that I didn’t realize the huge privilege that had been given to me. I do now.

As I got older, my grandmother would have the TV turned to Billy Graham. I would sit with her but I did not know what was happening on TV. Those times, those moments with my grandma, a time in eternity, I look back and I am sad that I didn’t realize the huge privilege that had been given to me. I do now.

My grandma is gone. I can still hear her voice. I see her face in my dreams. As I do now, with my father. He ,too, is gone. Sometimes in my dreams, I can hear him say “Connie”only the way he could. Today though, I look back and I am sad that I didn’t realize the huge privilege they had in my life. I do now.

Life before addiction. I wished I could remember. I wish I could do  my Life over again, with my children, before the drugs stole (or weren’t removing from my memory) the precious things, the important things. I wished I had listened to my dad. “Connie, be careful…” I thought that will never happen to me. I was a cowboy thinking I could play with fire, one more… Today though, I look back and I am sad that I didn’t realize the huge privilege that had been given to me before drugs.  I do now.

Christ rescued me. I am sober today only because of Him. Prayers. Prayers face down. I was at my bottom and Jesus rescued me. He parted the Red Sea. Today, I look back and I am happy that I did realize the huge privilege that had been given to me. I did then, I do now.

Christ loved me then, He does now.

And we cry, Abba!

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The Hourglass of Life

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on January 29, 2018 by Her Broken Wing

What did you say? Sitting next to him, I impatiently asked.

And then I saw the pain in his eyes that told me he was doing his best.

He was old now and his speech had begun to slur. I took his hand and held it. I was convicted. The twinge of pain ate at my soul. I looked at his hands. They were wrinkled and aged–they were old. He shook as he squeezed my hand back. There was an unspoken language between us then.

In that brief existence, his heart spoke of a time when he was vibrant and virile. A man who raised a family. A man who had a career and worked a garden in the hot Sun. This is the reason his hands were weathered today.

His heart spoke through his eyes, he was a man of God. Although my impatience saddened him deeply, he understood. For he had once been young and he too had been quick to judge an elderly man like himself as I did him today. Oh, he understood, he just didn’t like it.

I saw all this in the look of his eyes and the small tear that fell.

Time passed and we sat there quietly–together.

An understanding.

A forgiveness.

A love.

Psalm 71:9 “Do not cast me off in time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent”

Connie

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The Saint Fallen into Grace

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on January 26, 2018 by Her Broken Wing

“You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”(Matthew 7:5)

Did you hear about…? Or so and so…. Or I hear that another Pastor lost his…  Did you hear about Connie?

I cringe.

We are becoming desensitized. Or is it we are thankful that it is someone other than ourselves? But what about when it is us.

Oh, not because we are innocent although we might some times forget what our own “fleshy desires” might be.

When I fell, I fell hard. my flesh took its toll. I took a path of a non-fruit bearing life and yes, with Jesus by my side (See, Jesus never leaves us). I lived in the lie for many years which led me into a life of self-loathing. Eventually, I tried to take my own life. But God was not ready for me. I am alive but not without much pain. And there are always consequences of my choices. There will always be physical, physiological and emotional scars to me and my family.

I learned that another friend that I have always looked up to is not perfect. Imagine that?! Do you think the song, “Don’t look at me, look at Him” brings tremendous merit here?

I am always on my husband about his own flaws or one in particular. In hit me and hit me hard this week that it is not my place to worry about that any longer. Matt 7:5 slapped me so hard, I truly felt dizzy. For my husband has his own journey with Jesus and who am I to interfere? I thought what about my own weaknesses, my own problems that keep me apart from perfection?

Oh, flawless? That is right, we are not the perfection that God speaks of when He thought of Someone as the perfect Lamb that gave His life! Otherwise, what did we need Jesus for! And as in Galatians 2:21, God reminds us that Christ did not die in vain.

But I still wonder, so many people, Godly people are falling into the fleshly desires. Despair. Pain. Disease. Disappointment.
I have my own weaknesses that keep me on my knees, weak and praying. It keeps me forever giving grace to my friends and family as I am aware of my own limitations. The plank in my eyes help blind me to the pride I think I carry and helps me to reflect on an inner love that can only come from God. Spiritual blindness! Not an accident but part of God’s plan.

It is almost as if to say, in some daily reminder, we are nothing apart from HIM.

Daily we fall into grace. Daily we are reminded that we cannot live without HIM.

And as the battles rages… and it will–Satan wants us to give up… He wants us to give in and feel helpless, crying out, “Why bother, dear brother!”

On the other side, God is standing in, not surprised, not anxious but calmly waiting… He already knows where this is going….

You and me, all of US–Into the arms of our precious Savior…

As we–Fall into Grace, His Grace…

And when we stand before our Lord, we will know… we will worship… we will praise… HIM
He will only see us through the love of His Son and the forgiveness of the CROSS.

Amen

Connie

 

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A Force To Be Reckoned With

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on February 5, 2012 by Her Broken Wing

Sometimes, I just get depressed. I don’t know if it’s my personality or real depression. I try to figure out what is going on in my head by telling my sponsor or writing it down. Sometimes, it makes sense and sometimes it just doesn’t.

Already I have probably lost you. But I will try once again to explain this. For me.

I have highs and lows in any given second. I yell easily, cry hard and am timid when it comes to love. I might hug you if I feel safe with you. I still feel awkward at times with hugging people if I don’t know you. I absolutely will not open up to you unless I have known you for some time and then it is iffy (as I share my life on this blog 🙂  ).

I get anxious over small things and hit the big things with a force to be reckoned with. It is the fear of little things that devour me and worry me to death.  I worry about things that haven’t even happened and may never happen. Then after I have convinced myself that the worst has happened like my son has been in a wreck, I become crippled with fear. Geez …

By now, I’m terribly upset and I don’t want you or anyone to get me out of this craziness I have gotten myself into. I am in mental lockdown.

So, I went to the doctor… and he gave me some medicine for this “depression.” Eventually, all was well. I am like the pendulum swinging in the middle instead of the extremes. “So this is what it’s like? To be normal?”

My husband actually decided he liked the new me.  (instead of his screaming, yelling, crying temperamental wife)

At first, I felt like a failure… Another pill… but my friend said, diabetics take a pill…. You have a disease, take the pill. Not like I’m getting high on it!!

I don’t cry as hard… like I want to be a blubbering idiot anyway.

So I look at it this way, I’ve been dug out of the ditch to have a fighting chance to be who I really am.

To be Beautifully Awkward.

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It’s OK To Not Feel OK

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on February 3, 2012 by Her Broken Wing

Getting clean and sober is a life-changing experience. I tried to hold it together with drugs and alcohol in place of humanity that would be strange and new. I was scared. This would be my new home– that without alcohol and drugs. I wasn’t sure I really liked this place. A place I would be required to feel every emotion good, bad and indifferent.

Nonetheless, recovery is about attaining a place in my world. I would move away from my safe haven (or what I thought to be safe) to a new circle of friends and even family. I would find a new career. I would develop new interests. And I would finally become an adult.

Change is never easy. Finding a place I “belong” into a world –I intuitively know –where most people don’t even know I exist.

So it is no wonder I was stuck for so long in my addiction. It takes great courage to move out into the world. Actually, I never learned it was OK to not feel OK. And being stuck was my way of life.

It really is not the addiction so much as fear I experienced… Fear of change and of changing.

Today…. Life just Simply is…

Beautifully Awkward

 

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A Simple Prayer

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , on January 28, 2012 by Her Broken Wing

What do I oppose?

Scoundrels? Thieves? Skid row bums?

not really….

Who do I defend?

God? Family? Friends?

I’d like to say yes…

Searching for things…in my own life to fill that insatiable hunger that goes on into the night calling me by name.  And I feed its’ hunger like a furious wild animal gone too long without food. I forget to see above my natural instinct of desires and fall into the pit of longing.

Great regret sets in for having tumbled over enticing moments in time.

But grace sets in and reminds me of the Voice of Hope.

Not joining in would be an act of betrayal.

Simple faith… one simple day.

From a simple prayer.

Beautifully Awkward

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