S
Stillrandy
Guest
Anticipation and Vulnerability
The unknown, and trying to anticipate what comes next, or what might happen next, is not a space I operate comfortably in. One of the things I've often heard about from people (especially around here) is that I play too close to the vest and I'm not one who lets people too far in too often. Mainly I don't do it as a matter of protection. Yes, as a matter of keeping a sense of privacy and not letting things creep too far into my 'real life', but also as a matter of keeping myself 'safe'. Safe from not putting too much into a situation and risking getting hurt.
What I don't reveal often is that I sometimes feel too strongly too quickly. I also know I'm not always good at being honest with myself and others about where I'm at. Some of that is because it's easier to keep people at arm's length so as to avoid getting hurt. The bear of that is that you also ended up feeling pretty isolated when you do that.
Being vulnerable is hard. Opening up is hard. Trusting that even if it doesn't work out, it's still okay is exceptionally hard.
I can identify with a lot of what you said above. I have (too) often found that I jumped into (what I thought would be) a relationship, only to realize a short time later that the reality of the situation was far different than what I had envisaged. And then the tedious and painful process of unwinding the connection. Sometimes I need a minder....