Reality is...

Reality is what we experience when the fantasy fails us. Sometimes we think our fantasies are reality until reality gives us a swift kick in the butt and makes us take note of what is real and what is not real.

Real is we are all prone to self destruction, to lose, to hurt, to die. So how does reality become so obscured? How do we forget ourselves and get lost in the raging sea of real life?

We are resilient when it comes to the lines crossed from one realm to another. We snap back quickly when the fantasy has been interupted. But then we start a new reality because the old one is now lost in that raging sea to never return or be the same again, and if we are lucky we will be able to handle our now reality.

“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can't fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” ― Elizabeth Edwards

People tend to cling tight to their version of reality. Why? Because we feel safe there. Nothing can hurt us there. And because we are scared of what really exists for us on the other side of it. Pain, sorrow, anquish of being merely mortal.

Because it is too hard to move past the pain and build anew. We rather believe the lie we have created within us, the one that allows us to be whomever we want to be.

Distorted truth? Most times yes! Are we all vulnerable to our own truths? Yes we are but just as vulnerable to the truth reality has for us as well. Are we ready for it when it happens? Usually not.

Can we be happy with reality once the fantasy has been destroyed? Absolutely. Will it take work and perserverence? You betcha! Will it be worth it in the end? Absolutely!

“Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.” ― Marcus Aurelius

So, whatever your reality is don't forget about the one that runs parallel to it. The one that strikes in a second and strips you of everything you THOUGHT was real.

The one that never discriminates and forces you to look into the mirror we all avoid with all our mite, ourselves...

Written by: Belinda Taylor 8-16-2013
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Crazy Love

Did Harlan Ellison say it best when he said “The minute people fall in love they become liars.”? Isn't that when the term "LET THE GAMES BEGIN" become relevant?

Isn't the heart like a beacon in the night prominantly alerting others of it's whereabouts? "COME HERE! SEE ME?"

We inadvertantly throw up guards when we fall in love. The first downfall being "Does he/she really love me or are they lying?" Maybe they do love you but the lies do begin. Lies to keep the person we love from knowing ugly truths about us, our past, and who we once were.

Why do we lie? It's simple, we want to be loved and never judged. Perfect in the eyes of the one who captured our heart, our soul, our being. We forget that they have a past too and are most likely feeling the same as we do.

Lying is essential to maintain the game of love. Where would the enthusiasm be if we didn't play the game? We have to build our persona to be as beautiful as we can. Don't we?

Harlan Ellison also said “We find ourselves in odd places at various times, and for a brief span we link our lives to others and then, our time elapsed, we move apart. Through a haze of pain occasionally, usually through a veil of memory that clings, then passes, sometimes as though we have never touched.”

Isn't it true that we view love through a veil of pain? Ending with memories which in most cases are bitter endings of sorrow? Those memories do after some time become vague and hard to recall to the forefront of our mind. We tend to forget the good and retain the bad memories and in the end it truly is like we never touched at all.

What then? Should we be afraid to fall in love for fear of the lies that accompany it? Is it possible that by waiting for that perfect one we may miss out on some very exciting times in our lives? Well yes, it is possible.

I have been in several relationships and i walked away with a lot of different lessons from each one. I walked away with the knowledge that we should not give everything we are to another because others will not treat us the way we deserve to be treated.

I walked away with the knowledge that no one is perfect so don't let love lie to you and tell you they are. I learned that no matter how a relationship ends i am still a good person and will not live my life as a reflection of that relationship.

No matter what love holds for us we should always remember that the lies cannot corrupt us and take our self worth, or dignity away unless we let it. Don't guard your heart.

Live, love, learn from every aspect of what love has to offer. The good and the bad. Or as in the another spot on quote, “You must never be afraid to go there.” ― Harlan Ellison

Written by: Belinda Taylor 8-16-2013

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Nowhere

Exactly where is "Nowhere"? If nowhere is nothingness then can we really say we are going nowhere?

Perhaps "Nowhere" is rather a feeling we get when we have become jaded.

You know, that feeling of "Well i have been done wrong so many times i no longer care" feeling. The "I am numb inside because of past experiences" feeling.

Isn't that like saying, "hmm, i give up on the human race. I will never trust another!" You cannot say you will never trust another because fact is we trust people everyday. Maybe not from a relationship standpoint but we still place trust in others every day of our lives.

We trust that the store clerk will give us the correct change back. We trust that the bus will arrive on time. We trust that we will drive down the street safely because we trust the other guy behind the wheel beside us.

We trust in spite of how hardened we think we have become. So, if we can become that hard then maybe there is such a place as "Nowhere".

I have had so many marks placed on my heart that i feel like the scar tissue from them will suffocate it until there is no life left. But then that little thing we call hope pops through just enough to say "nope, not today, here is a spot not marked!"

Maybe i should just step back and say "hey, I'm jaded so don't expect me to care!" Then turn around and indicate that even though i don't care i still wanna be a part of your life.

That is double standards, not jaded. Jaded is what we claim when we don't want to be in a relationship of emotional substance. When we want the benefits without the investment.

Why do we seem to want the one we can't have? Why do those we can't have seem harder to get the more we want them? Why must the one we can't have tease us by hanging onto us by a very thin thread?

Is it the thrill of the chase? Or the thrill of knowing they never have to give in order to get. Who knows but it sure can be confusing.

I guess the moral of this article is to remind you to not give up because hope does reside in all of us and at the very moment that we decide we are going "Nowhere" love will fall into our arms for us to have and to hold as ours forever. I haven't given up or became jaded. Have you?

Written by: Belinda Taylor

August 14, 2013

The Demons Within

The title asks the question, so what is the answer? The demons we face in life do at times very much define who we are.

I can say i am not afraid to die but that would be a lie. Why? because i don't want to leave my family...

This fear, is it a demon within? Sure feels like it when the very thought of it causes you to catch your breath. It is dark and scary, and threatens everything we know as safe and content.

We are all susceptible to having that safety net ripped right out from under us. Leaving us to hang, dangling from high above, scared to believe when we hear," let go, i will catch you"!

Do we cling to the hope we will survive this God awful fall? This leap of faith? To place our lives in the hands of another in itself is like asking for whatever the moment holds for us in the mind of the person offering us the hope of being saved. Right?

Sometimes we need to sit and think about our lives and what we have done with it. Did we benefit anyone else? Or did we just become selfish and greedy? Walk on others before they can walk on us? Isn't that a demon in and of itself?

Why is it that bad things happen to good people? Why must the good always sacrifice while the demons of the world prevail, and prosper, and continue to feed off the needs, desires, weaknesses of others? Surely humans aren't predatory by nature. Are we?

Can we control our destiny? Our fate? I think to a certain degree we can. I mean, if i get hit by a bus crossing the street then was that my fate. Maybe, but if i hadn't crossed that particular street then i could have avoided that bus. Right? So in a way, i created my own fate. Or did i?

Was it the demon within that made me take the quickest crossing, throwing regard to the wind? Maybe i should have waited for the better alternative. But then why should i? This way is faster, easier and i am too lazy to go the long way round...

Close our hearts? Close our minds? Wait to die? Not this girl! This girl will fight hell and high water to survive because the demons can't have me. They can't lie to me anymore. They cannot steal my happiness and reduce me to nothing but a quivering mess on the floor of life. Love me, accept me, keep me, care for me, or leave me be...

Written by Belinda Taylor 8-2-13

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In 3 Years

She sat in disbelief as she read the words on the computer screen confirming her suspicions. Yes, indeed, he was cheating.

The tears rolled as she tried to muster up enough strength to hold her shaking hands steady.

The lies he has told about her jump right out of the screen at her, taunting her self worth. Why would he do this?

She doesn't understand but she realizes understanding it will be of no concern to him because his mind is somewhere else and not with her.

Standing in front of the mirror she looks long and hard and in her own mind tells herself she sees why he wants another for she is ugly, fat, disgusting to look at. Little did she know it was mind play on her own part.

Surely it had NOTHING to do with any of those things but rather had EVERYTHING to do with his own lack of self worth. HE had to convince himself that he is worth something to others, even if it meant lying to himself and everyone around him to know it.

Homeless at this point she sits at the Ohio River with her son and daughter-in-law wondering how this could possibly now be her life now. Knowing that tomorrow she would be standing in a food pantry begging for food and sobbing from the humiliation of it, and knowing he is but a mere 2 miles away, in her bed, on her sheets with another.

She was lost and sitting at the very spot where his son was dragged out of the deep, dark, twisting river, dead at 19 years old 2 years earlier. He had no remorse, no care about those the river seemed to grasp. How many lives must drown before he feels complete?

Over the course of the last 3 years she had learned a lot about herself, about him, about who her true friends are, and about the woman who walked away with what she thought was her life. She would conclude that her injustice would be her blessing in the end.

Confident, healthier, self employed, free, loved by family, and friends she treks forward in life with a smile, thankful for the life she has, and thankful for that life she lost and those people in it.

She has witnessed his misery over the last few years, as well as watched the other woman fail miserably in not only her relationship with him, but in her own financial status, and even as a mother of the unborn child she chose to destroy before birth.

I thank You Lord for what You have done for me and my family. For bringing us where we are today and keeping Your hand on us every second of everyday. I thank You Lord for laying out the map of my life and urging me to follow it.

For removing those people, places and things from my life so that i could live. For showing me that the river wasn't there to hurt us, but rather to clean him out of our lives forever.

For showing me that he is what he is and what he is will NEVER be any different. For giving me the courage to turn my heart away from such evil. In Jesus name, i pray, -Amen and Amen...!!!

Written by: Belinda Taylor 7-9-13
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Who's Life is it anyway?

"Who's Life is it anyway?" Isn't that usually the question when we as human beings feel disrespected by others? Do you pay my bills? Or put food on my table? No!

So i ask, why do you think i care about what you think of me? Are you anyone important? No! You are plain and ordinary like everyone else. No less but certainly no more.

When people become upset or annoyed over the petty things it kinda shows what kind of regards they have about the things that really matter in life.

Lets ya know who the true ones are in your life and who to dust off your feet and move on with a Pthh and a sigh. Glad to have them gone because using others for what they can offer you is wrong!

Lessons learned? History repeats itself? What goes around comes around? Karma's a B**ch? Are those statements to live by? You betcha! Do i? You betcha!

I also believe in the Lord Jesus Christ whom i KNOW takes care of me and my family, and He takes care of yours although you probably think you are the one who is responsible for that.

That is definitely something we are ALL entitled to, the right to THINK whatever we want. Judgement Day will tell all so i wont bother to worry about your thoughts.

I have the most perfect gift one can have, FAMILY! My kids and Grandbabies is proof of God's love and respect for me.

He has loaned me these treasures because HE says i am worthy of this. Until you become Jesus then don't judge me because to judge me is to not know me...

Thank you Lord, for Your Blessings on me and my family and for Your Blessings on EVERYONE in this world and their families.

Please forgive me Lord of my sins. Please forgive others who sin against You Lord. Please heal ALL the sick and save ALL the lost and make all wrongs right Dear Jesus. I Pray this in Your Name - Amen

Written by: Belinda Taylor 12-6-12
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Desire

I love the sound of rain on a tin roof. The whisper in my ear to know i am loved. I live for hugs and tender kisses.

I adore a candle lit bath and romantic dinners at home. Perhaps picnics on the bedroom floor.

I melt for cuddles, soft blankets, cold winter snow and hot cocoa. Looking out the window trying to guess how many snowflakes have fallen to the ground.

I crave affection and desire it to be given freely because, well, just because...

I dream of waking in the mornings to smiles and warm lips planted on my face welcoming me to a new day. I am hopeless and want you to be hopeless with me.

The sound of a train in the distance longing to be noticed with it's lonely cries in the dark. Or perhaps the song of the crickets in the fall at dawn.

Spring has it's own wonders to cling to but this moment, just once, this one moment in time i need someone to hold me, love me, need me, want me simply for the beautiful person i know i am...

Written by: Belinda Taylor - Sept. 9, 2012
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Scream ...

The darkness closes in like a blanket surrounding the very essence of her being. She struggles to shrug it off but it clings on tight, squeezing tighter with every breath she takes.

What is this? Why has it consumed her? Where did it come from? She feels her heart suffocating and wonders if she will ever be able to breathe again.

She suffers, she screams, but no one hears her. It came without notice, without concern for the life it would destroy. It is like a raging fire burning its way through the existence of others.

Scream louder, maybe she will be heard this time, maybe not but scream louder. Do not stop fighting for life. Do not fall to your knees in agony.

All these voices of insanity she hears inside her head, they wont stop whispering. They know her torment, they cause her pain. The darkness has almost smothered out the life now.

It takes what it wants and laughs at its work of destruction. It gloats in its victory. She is scared, shivering from the fear that has replaced the hole in her chest where her heart used to be, fear of the unknown.

Why, why, why has the light betrayed her? Why cant she just walk away and never look back? She prays, her faith never wavering, knowing it is the enemy that is trying to take her life. The enemy that seduces and mangles everything it touches.

It is like a drug, addicting, shiny and new but rotten to the core of it's very being. Why has it touched her life? Why has it wedged in deep and destroyed her? Why does it have to be so cruel?

Breathe it; Smell it; The pain of living. The flesh being the most disgusting thing one can ever experience, truly. Every breath makes way for the next moment of torment, the next moment of suffrage, the next moment of pain.

She struggles as she inhales. What she thinks will be air is in fact the pain she has grown to accept as "her" way of life. The wonder of why has long since left her consciousness and turned into acceptance. She is exhausted from the pain of it all, from the pain of living.

She looks in the mirror and sees the disease which has engulfed her entire being. Nothing seems to be working for her and what would is out of her reach. Being human has it's price as she has well learned throughout the course of her life.

Suffocating everything she once was, everything she is, and taking away what would have been. This reality has not discriminated against her. She is crippled in her emotions. “One thing you can't hide - is when you're crippled inside.” ― John Lennon The sincerest of truths.

Sleep is not even an escape. What will she do? How much further can she go? When will her karma be paid in full?

She begs for the release of her heart and soul but the thief will never let go. The thief will forever haunt her. She will forever hear the laughter of the darkness that now holds her captive. Be still my broken heart, let me go back into the light, please punish me no more...

Written by: Belinda Taylor 12-9-10
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Come closer, See me!

Come close to me, see me. Look through the windows to my soul, see me... Really see me. The turmoil stirring deep within, like dust swirling in the wind.

Can you make me see the beauty within me? Will you calm the pain? Come close to me, see me.

The girl feels, she sees, she hears the music, the music that can only be heard through the silence of our breathing, the stillness of our beating heart, faint and far away, but none the less there.

Is this but a mere memory of what once was? A daydream perhaps of what the soul longs for? Come close to me, see me...

The dim in her eyes, what is this? Is it death of the spirit within? Was it foretold what happens to the spirit when broken? The dim, making it harder to see the soul.

Blinding even those who look inside. Come close to me, see me. Don't mistake, don't be convinced that what is, is not. Come close to me, see me...

What is empty? Is it a visual which tells us the glass is empty? Is it the lingering pain deep inside our chest that takes our breath when we think of our losses and shortcomings?

Is it the emptiness in which we can not see but rather feel. What is this? Come close to me, see me...

I will march on. I will  not tarry. I will go forward and move toward perfection. I will march on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

I will cling to life, the life within, and i shall release this outward existence which comes in the form of life, but is the cruelest of punishments. Come close to me, see me...

 Make no mistake, the girl will never allow her spirit to endure this pain again, this emptiness within which cannot be seen, only felt. She is scarred within the depths of her soul.

Her heart is now harder than before, it shall not be penetrated with the steeling knife which presents itself as love and boars its way in like a parasite. Come close to me, see me...

Pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses her understanding, the lie which engulfed her for so long has reared its ugly head but she will be victorious and break free of its cold grip.

The emptiness within will be filled again. Come close to me, see me...Come close to me, see me...Come close to me, see me...Can you see me?

Written by: Belinda Taylor 8-16-10
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Beauty in and out of Character

It's often said that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". Each of us go by our own set of personal standards as we render our value judgment on who or what is beautiful. 

God is the author of beauty. Indeed the Lord has a great sensibility to beauty. That's why He made us all beautiful to His eyes.

But our standard for beauty is far different from the Lord's criterion, "for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart". (1 Samuel 16:7)

With this biblical reminder, may you be able to decide on the merits of beauty - `In and Out` for that matter. May the Lord give you His vision of beauty so we can all see the beauty`In & Out of Character`

Written by: Belinda Taylor 6-27-10
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epitaph of the Living Dead

This body hurts. This body cries. Wondering why its life cant be sustainable like other bodies. It wonders why it was chosen to live in the dead zone.

One illness after another, is it paying for past sins before it passes from this earth? Or was it chosen to test the innermost depths of its being?

Thirsty, numb, pain, all associated with its existence. Does it go on? Does it surcome to the ravages of its fate? Maybe it will fight for another day, maybe it wont. Who knows?

The strength the body felt so many years ago, now feels like a distant dream. Did it exist? Was it but a mere daydream interrupted by the reality we call disease?

Can't imagine the pain of the disease inside, can't take the violence shooting through the mind. Unleashed rage, pounding fear into the innermost regions of the heart.

Peace, my heart, let the time for the parting be sweet, let it not be a death but completeness, let strength melt into memory and pain into songs.

The body, not worthy, not of any value. It learns to stop feeling, but hopes for a life in the after. Will it be recognized and loved anew?

Will it be looked upon in a demeaning manner only to live eternally in its fate. Who knows? Here for a single hour in the wide starlight We shall be happy, for the dead are free.

Written by: Belinda Taylor 5-29-10
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