Another view -

Had a stressful Monday - wonderful way to start off the week! My daughter Shelby was driving home from Nashville this morning & her car broke down along I-40. She called her dad (who she has been telling him for a while now that it wasn't running right & he hasn't taken the time to check it since he is a mechanic) & then he called me & while I was talking to him, she called me. As she & I were talking & trying to work out the details of what needed to be done to get her to a safe place, a car pulled up behind her. I told her to stay on the phone with me as she talked to the man that approached her. Thank the Goddess many times over for this gentleman! He owned a towing business & small repair shop in the town that she was near. He took her to a nearby Burger King, then got his truck, went & got her car, brought it to her at Burger King so she could get her stuff, gave us all the info we needed to find him again, and took the car to his shop. I called my aunt in Knoxville & she went to get Shelby. I got Carly out of school & we left to get Shelby in Knoxville.

On the drive home, we were talking about my cousin Michelle, who is filing for divorce from her husband, and of course the girls' dad came up in conversation. My aunt for some reason just loves him & always defends him. When I got to her house to pick Shelby up, I said something about Ken having a part in the car breaking down & she said that I couldn't blame everything on him. I said not everything, but this I could as he has known for a while that it wasn't running right & hadn't taken the time to check it out. Any way, the girls said that he was a good guy, & I said yes, but my aunt wasn't his wife & neither were they. And living with a person that is emotionally distant & controlling & manipulative & abusive was not offset by the fact that he was a 'good guy' to everyone else.

They both said that we all have trouble expressing our emotions to others & it wasn't just him. I agreed, but I stated that he was mainly the cause of that - because he never accepted our feelings as real if they didn't agree with his, so we learned not to express our feelings to others in case they also rejected them. But I don't think we are as emotionally reticent as he is because we do express them to each other - at least I know that I have begun to over the past couple of years & they don't ever hold back from me -

I know that I also learned to hold back my true feelings because they weren't accepted by my parents - if they didn't agree with their views, then I couldn't have them. I guess I went from one cage to another - but I am coming out of both!!!!!! I do feel like a bird let out of a cage for the first time - having room to really stretch my wings & fly - can't wait to see where it all takes me!


PS - the guy in TN with the car talked to Shelby's dad & said that the engine is basically shot - main bearing gone or something like that. But he checked the car for over 3 hours & didn't charge a thing & said that he would extend the storage fee past the normal 2 days if we needed him to. He is wonderful - a real gift from the Goddess this Winter Solstice. So if you ever need a tow in the Cookeville TN area - call Bohannen's Towing - 931-839-3423. Bobby is terrific!