I don't come here as often as I used to, a statement which is probably fairly apparent. One thing that's been on my mind lately is vulnerability. Vulnerability can be a frightening feeling for me. It's a concept, if you'll indulge me, that I hadn't really explored until recently. I had a difficult childhood and still have a very distant and superficial relationship with my father. I prefer it that way. Early on, before I even knew what it was to be vulnerable, I decided unconsciously, that it was a dangerous way of being. My father is a narcissist and one of the things he excels at is being emotionally unavailable. It's one of his methods of control. He would always dangle praise, affection, and love as a carrot just out of reach. After the physical abuse started, it became clear that there was nothing I could do to please him. I would always fail to meet his uncommunicated expectations of me. So I figured that being fiercely independent was one way of taking control away from him. If I never counted on him or needed him for anything, then he couldn't reject me, or abuse me. For the most part, that's been true. But what it did over time was turn me into a control freak in more ways than I can begin to count. I take the upper hand every chance I get. I am pretty much always looking for ways I can be screwed over or taking action to prevent being screwed over. It's not the most positive way to live. My personal motto for the longest time was, "Plan for the worst possible outcome. That way if it doesn't happen you'll be pleasantly surprised and equipped to handle anything." I chose relationships knowingly and unknowingly that were with emotionally unavailable people or required very low commitment from me. And then, at times, when they'd display that very quality of being unavailable, I'd be hurt and feel worthless and rejected. The worst was if I'd see them be available to someone else in a way I thought they weren't capable of, because they wouldn't or didn't with me. I've been with my current partner for 4 years now. When we started dating I joked that I had a 4 year curse. That's because in the handful of long term relationships I've had, 4 years was the point things went to shit. In the months leading up to our anniversary last month, this weighed on me. Not because our relationship is in any trouble. It's the contrary actually. This is the best relationship I've ever been in. I started having nightmares so vivid that I would wake up in a full-blown panic attack unable to breath, shaking as my pulse raced. Every night I would dream about my partner leaving me or deceiving me in the most absurd ways. The anxiety was overwhelming. After a lot of thought, what was probably clear to most people reading this, became clear to me. I was terrified of losing him. That was scary to me as I have never felt that way about anyone I've been with in a romantic sense. And what feeling is associated with that? Vulnerability. I had let myself become vulnerable. What is true vulnerability? In love, I feel it's letting someone be capable of completely destroying you. It's handing someone a highly detailed map or a manual of what triggers you, your weaknesses, your phobias, unresolved traumas, along with a map of your brain and how it works. And then resolving yourself to the fact that this information can be used to ruin you. Yet this information can be used to uplift you, sustain you, comfort you, and guide you into wonderful and fantastic things. It can be used to make you better. In the end, I can't help if or how people try to use my vulnerabilities against me. I'm not naive, but I also don't want to be the kind of person who has built up walls so high that no one can scale them. I'm reminded of a story about a traveler welcomed into an encampment. They asked him to adhere to certain rules and then they told him what their obligations were as hosts. The encampment acknowledged that if the visitor was there to spy or harm them, then they accepted that as a possible outcome. However they still welcomed him wholeheartedly as a guest. Once I got through the idea of what vulnerability is and how it has an important place in the relationship I have with my partner, the nightmares abated. Honestly, he is the best suited to understand why I've had to protect myself for so long. And he deserves all of me, even the slightly broken and jagged edges, and the odd pieces I don't have a fit for yet. Here I am, letting go of this illusion that I had any control in the first damn place. Love isn't about control, it's really about submission. And I submit myself to loving him the best that I can as long as I can. He deserves that at the very least. Yet the little control freak still abides, except she just wants to love him more than anyone else has. I think he can live with that.