Dreaming With A Broken Heart (The John Mayer Was Right Edition)

I fall asleep at night feeling defeated. So much around me is changing. We are in a pandemic. So many permanent goodbyes yet all that surrounds me at night is my broken heart. Do you know what it is like to dream with a broken heart? “When you are dreaming with a broken heart” ….John Mayer was right….”The waking up is the hardest part.” Just as I awaken, for a split second, I feel like everything is okay. That the Ex Factor will always physically be near me. My dreams tell me it will be okay and that God is still in control. But I awaken and for that split second, I don’t remember that I have a broken heart. I don’t have the guilt of wasted times and wasted break ups. My heart is not filled with regrets…and I am smiling. The moment my eyes open I just know the day is going to be filled with love and no sorrows. That is how sweet my dreams are. Then I remember and my heart gets so heavy. So heavy that there feels like there is a building on my chest. And suddenly it is hard to breathe. Tears start rolling down my face. Then I get sad that I was awakened out of my sleep. My beautiful sleep. We sometimes make love in my dreams. We appreciate and respect each other so much more in my dreams. Most importantly, nothing can separate us in my dreams. We are together. We are happy. And we even have a family. A family. One of the key things 5 year old me nor 28 year old me could never envision. I feel like he’s taking all of me with him. I know many of you may think I’m being super dramatic but have you ever truly met a woman that never wanted to get married and/or have children? The universe has to do so much work to get her uterus to even do a little dance. She yearns for everything unconventional and wants nothing that is conventional. Her whole life is most likely planned with solo travels and dreams of visiting every continent. She does not hear the “pitter patter” of little feet unless she simultaneously hears the voice of God. Her soul is open to so much yet closed off to so much. She can attend a million weddings and hold a million babies and never say…’I am next.’ She just doesn’t operate that way. So for my dreams to be so vivid for the last ten years, for my soul to open up a bit, and for me to even admit that I love….even if it’s in the most toxic form…. is HUGE. To me, it’s nothing short of an act of God. GOD! And where is HE in all of this?! The Ex Factor cannot confirm nor deny that HE exists but I can. For weeks, I have been so angry with them both. I cannot get around this feeling. I have to go through it and y’all know how much I hate going THROUGH something. I always want to skirt around the feeling or the emotion. I want to dance around it but I can’t. Stuck with my broken heart. And where is GOD?! Why does HE allow me to dream such beautiful dreams if HE is only going to awaken me from them. Separate me from them. Leave me in a sea of pain. Where is GOD?! I think this is the first time in a long while that I question HIM. And not just about what’s going on with the Ex Factor but also for all the loss myself, my loved ones, and the world has endured due to this pandemic. Why now? Why us? Where are YOU? I ask yet nothing feels answered. I pray everyday starting with two scriptures: one for love (1 Corinthians 13) and one for protection (currently Psalm 91). Praying as soon as I wake is a habit. So even on my angry days I pray but I don’t feel like a faithful Christian. I feel challenged. I feel sad. I feel angry. And most of the time, I am at such a loss for words that tears are streaming down my face. Throughout the day, I talk with HIM. I imagine HIM walking with me. Lord, I am trying to trust your vision even when I cannot see where it may lead. There’s just so much more I want to say about this but my questioning GOD is not really what this blog is about. I am still dreaming with a broken heart. Tears are falling as I write this. I have to believe that GOD is in control because I really have no choice. Relying on my own mind and heart has always landed me in a sea of guilt and regret. Ironically, Summer 2007, when Julio broke up with me…I don’t remember being angry with GOD. I was angry with Julio and only with Julio. He had pulled the rug from up under me and even in my state of sadness I never ever thought he left me for another woman. I just thought he left me when I needed him the most. He was not patient, he was not kind. Julio was none of the things to me that was written in 1 Corinthians 13 about love. Not one of them. I think that is why I was not angry with God. I had no choice but to trust HIS plan because it was clear the one I was kind of just going along with was not for me. I am only bringing up Summer 2007 because it’s really the only thing I can remember about my relationship with Julio. The pain of getting through that summer. It is like the Good Lord erased the rest of the ten years I had spent with him. My memory is sharp yet I have little memory of what it felt like to be with him. I only remember the final hurt. The thing is…back then I was sleeping with a broken heart….I was not dreaming with one. To my recollection, I never had one dream of marriage or a family. So l slept with my broken heart…only to years later…almost three years to the exact date of Julio and my breakup…learn to not only love again but to dream with an open heart. That is what Summer 2010 did for me. It took Summer 2020 to make me realize that. Holding onto the Ex Factor for ten years was not wrong. No matter what happens in life…if you meet a person that awakens dreams in you that you never thought were possible or you thought were dead long ago…you get into the passenger side of their car and you guys follow the road where ever it may go. That is exactly what I did. Took this pandemic to make me realize that the Ex Factor is right…I have always been the glue that has kept us together. I am the reason we know each other for more than a summer. Without me, we would never have gotten this far. I made some mistakes. We made some mistakes. He was not ready and still is not ready. But I’m gonna tell you something most women would NOT admit to themselves nor anyone else…I was not ready either. Just started to get ready (naturally) about five years ago. Still not fully there yet. I still have so much work to do on myself. I am a late bloomer in matters of the romantic heart. And my ego has played a huge role in my delay. Pride and ego. Erase them from your vocabulary if you truly want to grow. Trust that self love will be the shield that protects and guides you during your journey to romantic love. And breathe through it all. Trusting your steps. Trusting HIS vision. Trusting your heart. Breathe through it all. Can you do that for me? I pray so. Because if you don’t…you may end up like me…dreaming with a broken heart. “When you are dreaming with a broken heart…the waking up is the hardest part. When you are dreaming with a broken heart”….John Mayer was right….”The giving up is the hardest part.” ~KJM on Temptation Tuesday💙