Mind Retrofit

Several years ago there was a guy who I deeply cared for, I still wonder about him and hope he is doing well. He opened my eyes to a lot of things and he hurt me. He hurt me to the depths of my soul. Why so deep, because I don’t know what I did wrong. He just all of the sudden cut me off from his world and never told me why. I still do not know, I felt we had a really great friendship. I felt that we really connected. There were times when I just looked at him and felt that we just got each other, there was no need to speak. Then there were times when I felt derailed, confused, misunderstood, and shut out.

What was this, what were we?

I really do not know, but now I can see a lot of my Asperger’s shining through, in hind sight. I didn’t know how to read the cues. I remember one time he said to me “you are one of those girls” and I said what do you mean? He said “a girl who always has a guy waiting”. I was very hurt, why would he think such a thing. Then I got angry, how dare he say such a thing! It wasn’t true and I told him so. I was fully capable of taking care of myself and I did not need any man to help me! I have taken care of myself my whole life, who was he to say that? I quickly forgave him and moved on but as you can tell I still remember the words, I remember that I was driving my car, where we were going and what we were talking about. (cleaning my cats litter box started it, just saying)

There are several things that he did to try to fit me in a box with, one being my Christian point of view.

I was not  a typical Christian and I still am not. I do not hold the point of view of the masses, though I am finding many more like myself, we do not have the loudest voices. The other folks do, those who make it out to be in a very negative light. There were differences in our beliefs and at the time I was hard-core fixated on, I guess you would call it an evangelical point of view, I was constantly studying so of course there would come a time when I would no longer hold such a black and white point of view. I actually didn’t then but it was what my church or the people I associated with represented and he had taken that view of me. He thought he knew me. He did not. He was unwilling to get to know my true views or where my beliefs took me. If only he would have discussed these things with me he would have realized that all I was saying is that Jesus loves you wherever you are at, find your journey. But he didn’t, though we seemed to share a deep friendship he was not willing to find out my thoughts or feelings.

I do have to thank him because if it wasn’t for him I would not have stepped back into reality.

Because of him I really began to question the very scriptures the church used to force me to be “obedient”. I started praying to God and asking for clarity. Then I began to re-read the gospels with a different perspective, seriously what was Jesus about? Well, He was busy running with people who the “church” people wouldn’t run around with and I felt the Lord told me I was wrong. I had been isolating myself from non-church goers and that was not being very loving. Even though I did love people I was not being loving. I was not accepting them where they were at, because that was the script I was given.

My script was changing, I was now released from a bondage that had me for several years.

It was a bondage that fits right into my AS, it gave me right and wrong, it told me that since I did not hold a degree in the area of say, Biblical Foundations, I was completely unqualified to question or doubt anything a leader who did hold some sort of degree. Well that seems about right? ( Though that didn’t last long and I have been in a little bit of trouble for questioning authority, I never try to defy authority, I just seem to state the obvious too often.) It obviously took a while for me to get my mind back and to come to terms with the grey areas. I remember one day my friend had asked me if I had ever seen the movie The Big Kahuna, well of course I had not because I had stopped watching R-rated movies for several years. When things started changing in my thoughts, my heart, my eyes were opening that was one of the first movies I watched. As I watched the movie, I cried, I felt sick, I was changed, and I knew and know today, I NEVER want to have an agenda. Great clip from the movie, I got it! The Big Kahuna Clip

I hope he was not implying that I was not honest!

I don’t think that is what he meant, but I know that I do not want to be known for marketing Jesus. I never meant to do that, all I have ever hoped was that I was loving people the way Jesus expressed it. I have this longing for people to know that they are loved, they are worth something, they do have purpose and they are not alone. I guess it could be because that is what I have longed for all my life. I found that through my beliefs, not because I am weak but because it made sense to me. It helped me feel ok for not fitting in, I found that God created me to be different, though that is said throughout church they do not really mean it, but God does. I am free because of my beliefs if I didn’t have these beliefs I would have never questioned them.

If I just went about thinking I had the answers, I would not have gained all of the great information and new found fixations I have now.

Sorry I went off track, what am I trying to say? He did what every other person has done to me, he made an image of me and kept me there. I was no longer a person, but an object. I wish he would have talked to me a bit more, I wish he would have hung in there a bit longer, but he didn’t and so I had to do something to get him out of my life, um…out of my mind. He had already cut me off I was the one that kept trying to contact him, so to help myself I wrote him an email and said what I felt God said at the time, and I never spoke to him again. I needed closure, though I did not get it and I have been fixated on him through out the years. Not a weird obsession but wondering about him, wanting to write him, wanting to know why he would no longer have anything to do with me, but I never did.

He made such a huge impact on my life that I just wanted to tell him somehow.

So I wrote this for me and for him. I believe my Asperger’s has caused me to not be able to let this go, I feel that the confusion has left me in a constant circle where I can find my peace about it, but then in my brain cycle the whole thing comes back up again and I cannot let it go. It doesn’t make sense, everything seemed very sudden, random, and there was no communication. Why? I may never know but at least I can go back to this and remind myself that indeed I may never know.

The place that we worked at was one of the best places I ever worked.

I met a great bunch of people, I learned so much from all of the people there. They helped mold me into where I am at now. Every person that has come across in my life has meant something to me, they have taught me, whether good or bad, or showing me love or hate, they made an impact and helped to open my eyes a little bit more every time. My mind is different, I am effected in different ways than other people, just like any Apsie can attest to, I do not understand the world in the same way. I can feel so incredibly naive at times, sometimes I feel like I have so much information that I am going to explode. Information is not the same as knowing, some things I know better than others, somethings I just have more information, somethings I am completely clueless until someone brings it to my attention.

This happens to be one of those moments, I am completely clueless.

This friend of mine reminded me of how much I love all kinds of music. How I love movies and the impact they have on me, which led me back into art and how much it makes me feel alive, leading me into dance once again and cultivating the passion I have for writing. Granted he didn’t single-handedly do this, there were many impacts from people and God revealing to me His presence in everything, my husband who has taken the time to build into to me and help me find myself and of course my children, just to name a few. Although thanks to this long-lost friend my life changed and went down a course I never imagined because I had limited my imagination.

Thank you my dear friend, ok, bye.