Have you noticed how people who are most uncomfortable expressing their feelings are always telling you how you should feel? These people surround me.
I express a feeling. I am not looking for any advice. I do not need to be fixed. I am expressing how I feel. I want my feelings acknowledged. I want to be acknowledged.
Where is someone who will not say, “I know exactly how you feel. I felt the same way. I took seven aspirins. I swallowed six and shoved the seventh up my ass. Instantly, I felt better. You should do that.”? Where is someone who will not say, “You shouldn’t feel that way. You’re wrong to feel that way.”? Where is someone who will not say, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t bother me, so it shouldn’t bother you.”? Where is someone who will just listen?
It is no accident that emotional mutants surround me. Like attracts like.
All of my emotional mutants have the same purpose: to teach me how to listen. They teach me by demonstrating what not to do. I am grateful for their lessons. Perhaps once I learn how to listen, then someone will listen to me.