All my life I’ve felt at odds with everyone around me.
I watched people.
I noticed things got done.
I walked around in a world, I was afraid I wasn’t really on.
Mostly it was a vague feeling
I certainly didn’t have words for it.
Often at medical procedures I disappeared. I thought. I would wake and realize the world was still here.
Same with therapy and stressful times. But I came around to where I felt like I appeared normal. I hoped.
Later in childhood, I read about magicians. I told myself I should be able to disappear. I was convinced I was doing it. I was meek and quiet and often alone. So, sure. I was invisible. Til someone called my name. The spell was broken.
I grew up more and knew this was a hoax I had fallen for.
I continued to hide and sneak around and stay very quiet and as small as I could. I couldn’t quite shake the thought I was not really supposed to be here, alive and with a purpose. I set out to find a purpose.
That must be the answer.
I still did various therapies. No one was able to make me understand why I felt this way. I gave up.
I got to adulthood and was busy and mostly ignored the nagging belief I wasn’t real. Or even here.
Life work kinda sets a path. When the baby cries or the paint is drying it’s a call to action. So you move.
My Daddy said “quit staring at your belly button, girl” Then he’d pinch my chin and ask, did I feel that? “You’re real!”
I carried on. I was perfectly happy to be busy. I looked for busy work.
As my health fails. My world grows smaller. Things are not easy as they were, I find I’m alone listening to the world move around me, again.
I’m feeling invisible again.
Just moments of it.
That old friend I’m not really here comes visiting in the early morning. When everyone is outside or very busy. I can hear them, they seem very far away.
Then it comes crashing back. Kids and dogs jump on my bed, squealing, giggling and barking. Ivy crowds me. Time to move.
Now I’m worried, what it will be like when it doesn’t crash back in?
I think I always was visible and really here. I was just afraid to be.
Invisibility was a shield as a struggling youth. Now it just feels like a trap.
A trap to the invisible.