01/08/2025
"I can't cope with this for one more f**king day". Me, out loud 3pm yesterday.
The last two days were really rough.
No explanation, no "reason", just the climax of
pain that's been building for a couple of weeks. It got to the "I can't cope" moment at 10pm on Tuesday night, then it settled, just enough for the tears to stop, but by 3pm yesterday I was so. f**king. done.
Even as I type this I'm tired of listening to myself. I don't even want to write this part, the boring bit you're all sick of hearing.
In my mind I can hear you, "we know Lauren, you broke your back, it hurts, we know, change the f**king tune..." I hate it. Sometimes. I hate that this has been my life for two whole years, well, minus 18 days. August the 19th 2023. I was 38 years old. I'm now half way through 40. There's still a bit of me today, this morning, right now that f**king hates that.
I'm rarely angry, so, knowing me well now, that means I'm hurting. But not just physically.
"Can you feel any emotion under the anger?" a question I ask clients often, and here I am whispering it to myself, again.
Of course I can I snap back, I'm f**king devastated. Sadness, sprinkled with rage, today, equals devastation. I don't know if that's warranted but it's how I feel and that means it's at least valid.
This next bit might sound crazy, but when I feel done, like I did yesterday I often scream at the sky. I'm not sure why. It's not like the higher power I believe in isn't everywhere. It's not like it's locked in a sky box and you have to shout in that direction to be heard, but I do. I shout my questions upwards, I direct my rage, sadness, helplessness, whatever it is that I'm feeling to the sky.
I promised you all almost five years ago I'd be honest as possible, so, here it is...
Recently I've had times where I've thought of leaving the farm. Giving up this part of what "this" is. There have been times where it's just seemed impossible to carry on here. Tuesday night was one of they times and I spoke it out loud, for the first time. To John. He got it. Of course, he gets it. He's lived these last two years right by my side and for that I'm also devastated, because this hasn't just impacted my life, but his too. In the s**ttiest of ways.
I cried and snottered a lot. I spoke my deepest fears out loud, because ultimately they are real and they're getting louder instead of quieter. He listened gently, he understood. He just let it be. That's exactly what I needed it, it was exactly enough.
As I walked to bed alone, this time instead of shouting to the sky, I whispered.
"If I'm really meant to be here, if I have to keep going, I need a sign, a really clear sign, I just need you to tell me, cause I'm nearly done."
Theyre usually good at letting me know, but they've gone a bit silent recently, I make it sound like that's their fault. Really what I mean is I'm not listening properly. Sometimes the pain is too loud to hear, this I know. Anyway, rewind a bit.
I've watched butterflies land on people a good few times. It's never, ever happened to me. It's actually on my bucket list believe it or not. Which is ridiculous probably, because I can't actually make it happen. Or can I?
I've always believed that if I can be still enough, calm enough, gentle enough, vibrate at just the right frequency then it will happen. But, nope, none of that worked.
40 years of "trying."
Until yesterday. It happened.
It was all wrong, I was sobbing, couldn't see the blue sky for my tears, tears I'm sick of. I wasn't still, I definitely wasn't calm and f**k knows what frequency I was vibrating at yesterday, but it didn't feel like the "right one", and yet... it happened. This beautiful butterfly chose me. Not just for a brief second either, there was a moment when I said to John, "du think this is my life now, stuck in this position to protect this wee being?".
It stayed with me for ages. Honestly, ages!
It moved back and forward, it even felt like it was stroking my thumb at times.
A bit like hand holding.
I took countless photos, a video that's too blurry to see a thing and we bonded. We chatted, it made me still. The tears from pain stopped and just for that short time I felt no pain. I don't know where it went, maybe it never left, maybe it did, I really don't know but I didn't feel it and that was everything.
Inside that space was hope. It held my hand until I found hope again.
It's actually more special than my bucket list moment dream, because what happened next blew my tiny mind.
It left me and went to John!
As I was frantically trying to identity it, it sat with him. It turns out it's a totem species.
A Grayling. Quite a symbolically special little being. It was a message, loud and clear.
It wasn't finished though. As I read to John the meaning... "let go of your fears and know that there is a way through the adversity, the struggles will be overcome..." it landed on me again. On my leg. Twice in one f**king day.
I'd waited a lifetime. Twice.
I know people associate butterflies with loved ones and those who've died, I've never really. Not really really. In my mind I've always known it'd take something special to feel that Ryan's energy was transmuted into a butterfly and he was coming to say hello. This land is abundant with butterflies of every size and colour and not once have I thought, that's Ryan saying hello. Not because I don't believe he can, or could, but just because I've known it wasn't "him". Yesterday was different.
There was a song sung at Ryan's funeral, it's called If I Were A Butterfly.
Yesterday, without a shadow of doubt he was a butterfly. Yesterday this little being was everything I needed. I've been a bit lost of late. Lost in the worry of how I feel each day, fear of having to give up the farm, lost in that my whole identity has become this project at times and I don't know if that's a good thing. If we "fail", what then?
Lost is a scary place to be. I don't want to lose me again. Even for this.
Here's the kicker though, it's actually all just simply mental because I know why I broke my back. I've touched on it before, I found out on the Thursday after the Saturday it happened.
It's a story I've not been able to share here. A story that I don't think people will take well (even I haven't a clue what I mean by this!?) and a story that I'm not sure will be believed.
Anyone who has heard it has disagreed, granted there's not many people, but they think I need to share it.
I think I've made a mistake.
I've been feeling a bit lost because I've strayed from the one thing I promised, to just be me.
I've let the fear of what it means win.
It's time for the story to come, I don't make up the rules, I don't know why it needs to be shared here, but who am I to question all that.
It's been almost two years exactly and it's a story for August. I promise myself.
I promise you.
What better way to celebrate my anniversary 😂
This was a long one, thank you if you got this far, I doubt anyone did. If you feel in anyway that someone might benefit from this rambling then please share this. I guess our stories are the first way to help others feel less alone in theirs and that's all I really want.
Thank you for allowing me to be everything that I am, vulnerable, a bit mental, rambling, sense making and well, just me.
If I Were A Butterfly....
Mind Yersel' ❤️