All or None

Sooooo… I’m beginning to notice that my blog posts are reading like a Pearl Jam “greatest hits” album. LOL… ? This isn’t my fault. I place blame wholeheartedly on PJ’s collective stage. It isn’t my fault that Pearl Jam creates music that relate to emotions that I don’t even realize I have (until I hear them in the songs.)

So yeah, absolutely passing the buck on this one. Literally, since I do buy PJ’s albums, even some merchandise (love my PJ bumper sticker on my car! Heehees ?) — although… Still waiting to be able to buy concert tickets since there’s a distinct lack of Montana dates on Pearl Jam’s tour schedule. ??

Anyhoodles… “All or None” came to mind yesterday (after I’d already texted the lyric, “If nothing is everything, I’ll have it all” to someone – from Gone, off of the Pearl Jam album) after an encounter with my Twin Flame. It was the first time we’d “spoken” to one another since the beginning of June (when black holes were created in the way only Twin Flames can create.) And I realized something. It wasn’t a new thought, yet it nudged right up against how I’ve been feeling lately, and kind of busted that truth wide open within me, that perhaps I’d been trying to hide or ignore:

I cannot do half-assed with people in my Cup of Care.

There are many people with whom I share a friendly acquaintanceship, and it’s comfortable. By unspoken agreement, we keep our “visits” to social media and running into one another at the store or other public places. We smile, we inquire about children and others, share what’s new, talk about how we totally have to hang out one of these days, then part (sometimes with hugs and smooches, sometimes with a smile and wave) and move on in our merry way, fully comfortable in that friendship status. We don’t text, call or otherwise associate and that is by unspoken design. And we completely enjoy it as such.

Then there are those friendships that sink past your skin, thread into your bones. These are the friends with whom you share mutual respect, consideration, love and affection. You guide and teach and learn from one another. Some of these friendships are fleeting, others last years spanning decades. These are the friends you talk to on the phone, in person, you text, you visit socially in real life as well as via social media (if you’re the type.) They accept you even if they don’t get you.

These are the friends you can go for years without actually speaking with, yet you know that should you ever need them (or they you), they will be there. And you also know that if you’re ever in their neighborhood without stopping by or at least calling – even if it’s been 20 years – they’ll kill you and vice versa. Some are there just for a flicker in time, like a leaf in the wind; there with you for a while, but leave (ha! leave! I made a punny, didn’t even mean to, lol) once their tasks are complete. Sometimes you are that leaf for someone else. And it’s All Good. These are Soul Mate friends in the tree that is you.
(And one of these days, I’ll need to go in-depth about what constitutes “soul mate” and what it all means and how it relates to the individual and those around said individual, but not in this post. ?)

For these friendships, endings are rarely acute. Most simply fade with time, yet always remain within you on some level. Others are disrupted through jagged life lessons that generally require time and healing before the friendship is over or reabsorbed (usually transformed into something else as what causes the rift, ends what was there before.) Sometimes it’s smooth… Often, very painful.

Then there is your Twin Flame, if you’re lucky enough to find and reconnect with that soul.

Twin Flame is Soul Mate to the N^th. And when you hear your Twin Flame say the word “Always” to you, it resonates within you, vibrates in a humming sound along your bones. Because that’s what the two of you simply Are. It doesn’t even matter what the two of you are even talking about. That word… It’s like The Ultimate “Safe Word”. It’s the reminder that you found Home.

Now, how does all of this tie into the title of this post?

In my experience, it is impossible to go from any type of soul mate relationship to “friendly acquaintances”. While one could turn a “friendly acquaintance” into a soul mate relationship (it’s simply a matter of mutual agreement, for example, I met a soul new to me a few years ago, and she told me that she liked how I parented my children so much that she asked if I would be her mom next lifetime. I said, Sure. And with that voiced agreement, a bond was formed and she and I successfully expanded our friendship from friendly acquaintances and now have a soul mate friendship.)… I have yet to experience going from something as deep and mutually abiding as a soul mate relationship to “hi’s and bye’s” on the street. In my heart, I don’t think that’s even possible. And in my soul, the thought of reducing such a powerful connection to something so mundane as “acquaintances” makes me cringe and recoil on an instinctive level.

You don’t believe me? Try it.
Go ahead: The next time you (try to?) end things with a special friend, a soul that Matters to you, see if you can do the casual “Hello” with that person.
Once you’ve experienced that, imagine doing that with the soul that is Twin to your own.

Uh huh.
That’s what I thought.

I tried it, for I believe that when there are no hard feelings, one shouldn’t behave as if there are, meaning, when someone who shares a Connection with you greets you as you’re walking down the street, you should return the salutation accordingly.

It’s a hopeless… situation
And I’m starting to believe
That this hopeless… situation
Is what I’m trying to achieve – All or None, Pearl Jam

One might try for the “It is what it is”, but in truth, all that means is that it is what it is because it isn’t what it should be. (Thank you, A! ?) “It is what it is” is one half-assed declaration, and I hope to never – ever – hear it in regards to any relationship I am ever in… Ever.

Let me speak plain:
If the man I’m with refers to our relationship as being “it is what it is”, then I am clearly with the wrong man.

I don’t care if that man is a soul mate; obviously (to me), the connection then is one of lessons to be learned and experienced gained rather than one of genuine true love and care. Cause damn. Just… damn.

I’m just glad that it wasn’t in reference to me. I certainly don’t envy the woman who’s part of that glowing, waxed-poetic pairing. Ouch. ?
*stage-whispers* Half. Assed.

If I can’t have a real, mutual, communicative friendship or deep love relationship with the soul I feel so connected with, I’ll go without altogether, than be reduced to something that feels so viscerally wrong and false to me.

Me, I’m going for this:

It’s all or none … All or None.