That’s not family.

For somewhere that wants to be called “home” you can be offly exclusive. I’ve called you “home” most of my life and now that I’ve stepped away for a bit that “family” I came to know isn’t allowed to talk to me. 

That’s not how home works. I’ve none most of those people since I was 4 but if they saw me on the street they aren’t allowed to talk to me. If I called them up they probably wouldn’t answer. If I invited them to take part in an event, and even if they wanted to attend they would be highly advised not to. That’s not how anhoke or family works. That’s how the mob works.. or a cult. 

I can’t see a family not being happy for a member when there life is Changing in a way that is clearly for the better. I can’t see a family suddenly dropping any support they had for a person because there life got busy or because they had to move. Not when you’ve been family nineteen years. 
Maybe I don’t understand family. Maybe that is how family works. The same “family” that’s not being a family though is who helped give me my base knowledge of family. The knowledge I built all my relationships on. I just can’t see myself doing that to the “family” I’ve built. 

Keep searching for Fireflies ❤

Reggie. 

A letter to the girl in the corner.

I am you. Trying to stay out of the light. Trying to get by without being noticed. Trying to avoid whatever it is that sent you into this corner to begin with.

I’m usually trying to avoid anything that will send me into yet another anxiety attack. Trying to avoid the stuttering and of beat breathing and the inability to form coherent thoughts in a normal response time.
Sometimes I stay in that corner long enough to just catch my breath. Other times I’m there so long I should change my address. I’m there long enough to feel like “Ok, you can face the world again” and then I step out of the corner that me safe. And in those moments I feel like me.
You know those moments, the ones where your smile is real and genuine and you can laugh without it being forced. Oh how I live for& love those moments, how I love those moments. The moments where I see a brief flash of the Reggie I was before anxiety and depression started to rule my life.
Oh but how few and far between those moments are. It feels like I blink and poof I am scurrying back to that corner. Back to so called safety. It isn’t though, it isn’t safe. The darkness of that corner is where the anxiety and depression live, it’s where they wait for me. I hate that corner. I hate that it loves me and seems so inviting from the middle of the room.
I’m tired of that corner. I’m tired of the battle with these monsters. Its a losing battle it feels like. And I’m tired of losing. My only choice in this battle I’m tired of fighting are to win or give up and I want to win, I will win. It will take time I know, and lots of prayer. I can do this.

Keep searching for Fireflies. 

Reggie

Effort

Being a grown up is hard. Like really hard. I think the thing I struggle the most with though is keeping in touch with people. I feel like this is probably a lot of peoples week points though. We find ourselves saying things like “let’s make plans!” Or “we should totally get together soon it’s been ages”. And then we go seven months without talking to that person again. If we even talk to them then. 

It’s costs us friends and loved ones and memories. We don’t do it on purpose, or at least I don’t. It’s justhard to match up everyone’s schedules. We let time get away from us. We pour ourselves into our job and work way more then we should. We lose that social life we all so desperately want and figure that social media will keep it alive. It doesn’t though. If anything social media is one of the #1 reasons our social life dies. 

We are all so busy trying to get ahead in life we forget that love and friendship are such important things. Things that need work and attention. We try and blame everyone else for our relationships fizzing out but most of the time it’s our own fault. 

I’ll admit it’s my fault. My depression and anxiety keep me from reaching out so instead I keep myself busy by over working and exhausting myself. I find myself letting my schedule get in the way, i find myself making excuses. I’m afraid when I do get to know a person, or more when they get to know me, they aren’t going to like what they see. 

It’s not that I am an unlikable person it’s just that my brain tells me I’m not good enough. 

I want to be better at staying in touch and making plans and that’s what I’m going to work towards. I’m going to fight my brain. I’m going to fight my anxiety. I guess we will see who wins. 

Keep searching for Fireflies. 

Reggie. 

PS.

Still accepting Q &A emails at searching4firefliesblog@gmail.com

An open letter to the uncle that disappeared,

I called you my hero. Not just because your job as a fireman made you one but because I looked up to you. You didn’t let any obstacles in life stop you from achieving your dreams. I mean maybe you still don’t. I wouldn’t know though. 

I remember one of the last times I talked to you. I was lying in a hospital bed and scared out of my mind. I was barely 16 and almost dying. You were telling me you’d studied what my problem was and knew a man who had seen one up close. That the insides looked like butter and cheese. You were trying to make me laugh. I had just finished a project on you for a class. A project on heros. 

When you cut off contact it hurt the most. M&E didn’t hurt me like you did. M had told me for years I didn’t have to call her aunt and E was barely older than me. 

I grieved your loss as of you had died though. You had died and there was no funeral. No closure. So I’m writing this to try and get some closure. Isn’t that what your therapist told you to do? Isn’t that why you sent that heartbreaking email to mom? The woman who had basically raised you? 

You’ll never read this though. You’ve probably forgotten I exist, you didn’t know “Reggie” anyways so if you do stumble upon this it will hold no meaning. I’m mad at you. I have been for years. 

I forgive you though. For hurting me. For forgetting where you came from. For crushing the heart of a girl who thought you hung the moon and stars in the sky. 

I hope you’re safe. I hope your rescue family has your back. I hope your wife and little boy are happy and healthy. I hope one day you remember your family and when you do you smile. 

I hope you watch for fireflies and even if you don’t understand why I hope the light up your heart. 
I love you. 
Reggie.