Beautiful

  I learned a lesson today that may possibly have set me free from living in suppressed misery and depression.  You see, I am one of those girls who has developed the habit of silencing her voice to the point that it makes her physically sick.  I crave peace and harmony so much that I've been willing to be silent for most of my life in order to preserve the peace. The only problem is that my silence hasn't really changed how I thought or felt about a situation, it has only prevented me from learning how to express myself in a healthy way.  I'm sharing this for those of you girls (and guys) who are dying of loneliness and isolation on the inside. You know what it's like to wake up each morning and lay there as long as you can because you dread the day. You understand what it's like to be alone in a crowd of friends and to cry yourself to sleep at night when you have told people all day that you're "just tired." It's true. You are tired of life. It...

It always gives me intense gratification to know that someone else out there has experienced some of the things I thought were peculiar to me. This inspires me to share some of my daily life experiences, hoping that either you will relate or become more understanding of glasses-wearers.  If you wear, or have ever worn glasses, you will understand some of these issues.  1. Wearing them on your head to hold your hair back, and then twisting backwards to catch them when you forget and tip your head back too quickly.  2. Having non-glasses wearers steal your glasses off your face or off the table to try them on...then patiently listening to their complaints of a headache, and trying to explain what your vision looks like without  your glasses.  3. Squinting without your glasses and having people concernedly ask you if you are ok.  4. Wearing your glasses for weeks, then contacts for a day, and when you wear your glasses again the next day hearing people ask you...

Back home in Arkansas, again. For the past four years, I haven't spend more than four weeks at a time at home. Usually about every three weeks, I'm packing up my stuff again, and driving off to some other place to continue living for another three weeks. Then I'm home for a short time, and then gone again. Packing has become a science, and I've learned how to survive with as few things as possible. I was studying an atlas of the United States, Canada, and Mexico this morning, and it surprised me just how many states and towns I've been to. It's quite an inordinate amount for someone who's only been around for twenty-two years. Actually, most of the traveling has been in the last seven years. I've ridden in cars, buses, airplanes, and boats for thousands and thousands of miles. Probably driven a few thousand myself, with canvassing. Walked for many many miles, too. Talked thousands of strangers. Been part-way around the globe a few times. It's ...