There's still the weirdness that comes from lack of Rick...and I think we both feel it. My emotions come in waves... gratitude for friendship that surrounds me...happiness that I am supported...sadness that strikes me hard...and a new one: disappointment.
I'm disappointed that I can't have the life I wanted. I'm disappointed that I can't spend another anniversary with Rick, another birthday, another Friday night. I'm disappointed that I won't be able to run home and tell him good news...or show up with him at someone's wedding...or go on a vacation this summer. I'm disappointed that the holidays this year will be ruined...that he won't get to see my brother's new house...that he won't get to see my nieces grow up. I'm disappointed that he won't be able to take care of me when I'm sick...or reminisce with me about how we met. I'm so, so, so disappointed.
Disappointment is such a deep emotion. It has a heaviness to it as well as an emptiness. I remember feeling it as a child... that first taste of extreme disappointment, how raw it felt and how unfair. Disappointment cuts deeply and the wound lies open, bleeding. Disappointment follows you around and you just can't get away from it.
Disappointment hurts so much.
I look over at my friend and smile, because she is the kind of friend who understands my blogging ritual...who supports my need to open my box of grief. She sits in the dark with me and allows me to pause the movie we rented so that I can have my half hour to write.
I'm disappointed that I can't tell Rick about what a great friend she is to me.
He already knows, of course, because he knows everything now... but I always liked telling him stories... it's what I miss most of all. I miss recounting my day, sharing my ambitions, discussing lessons I've learned, and making him laugh. I miss his sarcasm and his laugh. He always threw his head back when he found himself especially funny.
Why can't I have the life I wanted? I'm disappointed. I will be the phoenix, rising from the ashes to begin again, but I didn't want to be. I wanted to be a wife, a friend, partner, a support, a lover, and an easer of pain to the man I loved. I wanted to live in this house with him...and kiss him good morning and good night. I wanted to share dinners and watch movies...I wanted to laugh... I wanted to hold him close, every day... I wanted to take trips and drive around... I wanted to dress up and hear him say I looked nice... I wanted to be married for more than 6 years. I wanted to love him more than 7.
There is so much I wanted that will never happen...can never happen. And I'm disappointed.
Yet one of the things I learned from Rick is acceptance. An abundance of acceptance, in fact. Accepting terrible circumstances is difficult, but it is possible. Only by acceptance will I be able to peacefully move forward and shed that shadow of disappointment that envelopes me right now.
Rick would tell me that disappointment won't serve me. There is a time and a place for it, but that time is temporary and that place will fade away. I hope that my disappointment will fade to an ache...and that later still, it will become a resolve...and perhaps later still, it will be a lesson. And maybe one day, when the lesson is learned and my life has reached a close, I can finally share the greatest story of all with my Rick.
I am usually good at leaving comments but I have not been able to do that with your posts. I just spent over an hour reading your posts. There are many things that I could say and nothing that I can say. The future is unknown. This is unimaginable now but some day you may be married and have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
ReplyDeleteThis actress was being interviewed. Now she was very disappointed. You can say that it was a deafening disappointment. She was telling the interviewer that even though she never met Tom Cruise, she has had a huge crush on him. Now she is a very successful actress but she thought that by now she would be married to him, yet she has never met him. So she was telling the interviewer that all this stuff that she had imagined has never come to pass. It was all just in her imagination.
Her name is Katy Holmes and she did marry him later and had a child with him named Suri. She is no longer married to him.
Arielle, I'm so sorry this disappointment crushed you. It must hurt, to think of all the wants and would haves and should haves - and you do deserve to have all that you now will not have. And that really sucks. And I am sorry. And I believe that one day, the disappointment will not crush you so much. Much love and prayers.
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