My previous post touched on the journey my family has been on together. Although we are currently on the same page, my husband and I took different paths and followed forks in the road that sometimes seemed like they would never meet. After the birth of our son, I felt so disconnected from Judaism and lost in my marriage. I felt like I was constantly putting on a show and I was so tired. In the end, it turned out that I had mono. We chalked it up to that and continued on our separate paths until years later when we suddenly bumped into each other again. At the time, I wrote a more cryptic blog post. Looking back, I can still feel that loneliness. I want to share my experience for anyone who is standing opposite someone they love and trying not to break them with their need to be honest. You may feel alone right now, and you may be alone, but there are so many of us alone in the night. When we cry, we cry together.
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I am trying not to hurt him.
It is hard to focus on the content of the words I am forming when he is looking into my eyes with an intensity I have not seen since my eyes met his over the lifeless bundle of cloth that held our firstborn.
It is sorrow.
He is looking at me in sorrow.
I swallow and lower my gaze.
“I’m not sure I believe,” I mumble.
He doesn’t ask me to repeat it. He’s known this for some time now, he just thought it was something I could live with.
I did live with it for a long time. I theorized that if it was all true, I did a great job and if it wasn’t I didn’t hurt anyone. I was fine with the path he wanted. I was fine with the direction that meant I could have family and friends and feel part of the familiar. I was fine with it until I started hurting and then I wasn’t fine with it.
So I tell him.
We are fighting about it now. We are at each other’s core and we are clashing so hard. I am banging on his soul and he is looking away, refusing to see himself reflected in my pain.
I turn inwards. I write because I cannot speak.
Love is not a game for losers…losers make hearts bleed and blister…losers never get it right…
Hearts can get broken… they can shatter… wilt…they can cease to beat…
Dying cries of murdered love…whispered accusations…wordless shame…
Nothing can bring back the sparks that set the fire ablaze…nothing can extinguish the rage…nothing can make this cold fire warm again…
Red-eyed woman…curled on the floor…her heart ripped open…leaking hopes and dreams…soaking her…draining her…sucking the life out of her…
Devil’s laughter rings loud and strong…mocking…mimicking her acts of love…knowing her to be nothing more than an actor giving up on the lead role…an understudy…
She can’t go on…she can’t move…she must give in…to the overwhelming sadness…of the realization that she does not know who this woman is…or what she wants…
He cannot be the man of her dreams…never sweep her off her feet…he will never hear her heart beat full…of love…of life…
His mind stumbles over what is true…and what is perceived…by her…by him…by others…
He wants to understand…he cannot…he will not…
Love is not a game for losers…losers make hearts bleed and blister…losers never get it right…
I am also postpartum and sick so we aren’t going to take me seriously until one day, he tells me he isn’t sure he believes.
Colloquially Speaking 