Friday, August 27, 2010

Nothing significant for today.

i've decided to try and be a bit more intentional about posting here more regularly and i'm very uninspired today so my thoughts are especially abstract and scattered.

Today marks 3 months since i quit smoking. There are many times when i regret having done that. Stupid, i know, but such is the nature of addiction, i suppose.

i recently rediscovered the awesomeness that is Tuvan throat-singing. It happened like this: My brother Matthew saw a strange looking CD for sale at a library in Edmonton and lent it to me. The CD was Ilmatar by a Finnish folk band called Värttinä. It was so enjoyable i decided to look into some of their other music. The album of theirs that came out shortly before Ilmatar, titled Vihma featured some Tuvan throat singing, which pushed me to watch the documentary Genghis Blues, which is about American blues musician Paul Pena and his discovery of Tuvan throat-singing and his subsequent journey to Tuva to particpate in the national throat-singing competition. That led me to purchase the album Back Tuva Future by Kongar-ol Ondar (one of the most talented throat-singers in Tuva). Fantastic album.

Also, i've been revisiting my childhood by watching a few of my favourite shows from those days: Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men, and Gargoyles. Good times.

Albums i'm big into right now: All the above mentioned albums, along with Maya by MIA, and Rain's 'A Comin' by Children 18:3.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Airing Out The Closet, and Laying That Skeleton To Rest

So, it's been about nine months since my last post, and i've been encouraged by a very close friend of mine to take up blogging again. What better way to return than by opening up heart in a very uncomfortable way and letting the internet in on one of my most tightly held secrets?

i am a survivor of sexual abuse.

It's amazing that such a small statement can hold so much chaos and pain wrapped up in it. It's amazing that such a small act has had such a deep and detrimental effect on me for the majority of my life. For about 17 years i kept that to myself. For that amount of time i unwittingly let that event define so much of my identity.

My insecurity and tendency towards self-disdain/loathing, my horrible body image, my fear of betrayel/rejection, my difficulty allowing people to get to know me or get close to me, a vague and general sense of shame...

The list goes on.

It happened when i was pretty young, but my childhood memories are pretty jumbled, so the chronology has been lost, i would have been no older than 7 or as young as 4 years old. Like i said above, i've had a long time to hold on to that hurt.

Living through your schooling years with an inability to trust people doesn't make it very easy to develop deep, and lasting relationships. That's something i'm still trying to figure out.

So, i don't really know what else to write about this, so i think i'll end here for today.