Looking For Kindred Spirits

January 5, 2010

This is the first in a four part series titled, When Love Multiplies: Two Couples, One Relationship

For Jerry and Byllie, their own explorations into swinging were different. “It was always about making friends first.” Byllie remarks. An emotional connection was a must before sex as far as she was concerned. She wasn’t interested in meaningless sex, not even in the name of fun.

Jerry and Byllie have been married for 10 years. They met in Las Vegas, where Byllie was a stripper. Jerry was a married man of 16 years at the time, but his marriage was faltering. “We had sex once in 7 years, and we both rolled over afterward and went, ‘why did we do that’?” Jerry comments wryly. When he met Byllie, he knew there was something about Byllie he had to pursue. Over the course of the next year, Jerry followed his intuition and visited Byllie at work. Byllie finally agreed to go out with Jerry. Jerry eventually left his wife and married Byllie.
The two were married for seven years when their life hit a rut. It was a great life but sex was infrequent. They had single female friends, strictly platonic, and no married couple friends. When they hung out with their friends, Jerry and Byllie didn’t want to be affectionate with each other for fear of making anyone feel like a third wheel. This lack of affection between the two of them in front of their single friends “kind of drew us apart sexually,” Byllie added.

They both agree a turning point in their marriage at that time was a visit to Amsterdam. They smoked hash for the first time, which was followed by amazing sex. “We had sex like rabbits for three days.” Jerry gets out, laughingly. “We pretty much had sex the entire time we were there. Then we got back home and we were like, ‘wow, that’s what was missing.’” Byllie chimes in. This sexual revival prompted further discussion, which led to the realization they needed couple friends and people who weren’t all “caught up in being paranoid about expressing their sexuality.” So began the research to find people who were open and that led Jerry to swinging.

Jerry created several profiles on some of the popular swinging websites and groups available. Jerry created these profiles to facilitate the learning process because only a member can have full access. It took Jerry a week to tell Byllie. “I went, ‘Um Byllie, by the way’…” he laughs. “And I was like ‘Whaaat?’” Byllie adds, “Because I had previous swinging experience with my ex.”
“This was actually one of the reasons why we did it,” they say almost simultaneously.“I have to digress a bit,” Byllie calmly states, her emotions showing on her face. “So my ex and I… he says to me (about five years into their marriage), ‘Let’s go to this house party. It’s a swinger’s party… because I don’t want us to get bored in our relationship.’ And I say, ‘Okay.’”

Byllie recalls the nervousness they felt about not knowing what to do and how to act. Eventually, the two of them encountered a single male and invited him to a room for some play. Byllie’s ex-husband suggested Byllie allow the man to “just lick your pussy.” At this point, Byllie was quite inebriated. “I was three sheets to the wind,” she reminisces. One thing lead to another and the two of them had sex.
Her ex then left the room on the pretext of having a cigarette but left the party without Byllie, effectively stranding her at a house party with people she barely knew. Understandably, this first swinging experience caused feelings of trepidation in Byllie once Jerry brought up the possibility of swinging. “But we also knew [because] we talked about it at length… that that was a demon she needed to face, “Jerry comments.

Byllie counters, “Well if I’d never swung again, I wouldn’t have been haunted by it.” Jerry reiterates, “There was still part of that anger you held over.” Byllie concedes his point, “Well, looking back I get angry. At this point in my life I’m not angry anymore… because I guess it was a necessary step in my life.”

Next, Part Three: An Evolution into Love


Going Through the (E)Motions

December 16, 2009

Back in September, an impromptu happy hour with new friends introduced a new person into both J’s and my life.  J and C ended up hooking up that night (yes, while I got the chance to hook up with a hot couple who were also recently acquired friends).  Several nights later, I joined J and C for a fun night of threesome play, even though C is really only into guys when it comes to sex.  It didn’t really take away from the fun that night, especially since I went in knowing the score.

I’ve never really talked about compersion here on this blog. Maybe I mentioned in passing that compersion is the term coined to explain that feeling of happiness one person gets when they see their lover, be it husband/wife or girlfriend/boyfriend, with another person sexually and/or romantically.  I say and/or romantically because polyamorists adopted the term compersion to try and get the world to understand you can have multiple relationships successfully and share in your lovers’ emotional and sexual satsifaction with another person without being involved necessarily.  Maybe I talked about it in that vague, unattached way without giving you any real life examples.

Mainly because when I experience compersion in my relationships, it’s generally mixed in with a great big dose of fear that sometimes looks a little like jealousy and, more often than not, envy.   I get the wonderful gift of feeling joy at watching J enjoy multiple relationships while at the same time worrying over every little detail like only another Virgo mind can really appreciate.  I can honestly say that, with the exception of our first experience with K, every relationship since has brought the same warring feelings into my life, heart and mind.

It wasn’t anything these ladies did so much as what their entrance to my life could mean.  I was worried about what might be -  because with K , I did no such thing.  With K, I threw caution to the wind and took a chance that my heart meant as much to her as hers and J’s meant to mine.  I thought our years of friendship, the time her and I had taken to know each other and care about one another, would be my safety net.  I also put a lot of stock into J’s other poly experiences and his talk of being able to love more than one person at a time without it causing damage to our relationship.  I took a lot at face value in that first poly relationship.

It’s not that I blame K (okay maybe I blame her) or that I blame J even… truth be told, we all were to blame.  Me for my blind faith, K in her lack of faith inability to share, and J for his unwillingness to accept that K was not who he thought she was, who she claimed to be.  It was all part of why we weren’t able to stay together as a triad.  It also plays a part in why it is almost impossible for me to experience just compersion in any current or future poly relationships I might become a part of later in life.  I can’t say it will always be this way; it’s just the way it is now.

So, while I was happy for J that he had a new friend with benefits, maybe potential love interest – I was all kinds of crazy scared of what that change meant for me.  J and I are funny that way…  one of the things J tells everyone about is his inherent selfishness.  And it’s true.  J wants what he wants and damned anyone who gets in his way.  Even me, at times.  But this is what gets  me… when people look at our relationship and hear that or experience it, they think of me as the martyr, the poor suffering girlfriend who lets her man get away with it.  But the truth is – I’m just as selfish as J.  I think that’s why we work so well.  He’s fighting for what he wants, I’m fighting for what I want but in between all that is this amazing love that refuses to let us break up without reaching a compromise between what he wants and what I want.

So it’s been several months since C entered our lives.  We had some really interesting times between J and me as we tried to navigate this new relationship.  J and C have settled into a really nice friendship and casual sexual relationship (that sometimes I get to enjoy as well).  C has learned a bunch of new terminology from this newly tried open relationship style that so far only encompasses one couple (that would be J and me, in case you weren’t following).  Of which, her favorite term would be compersion.  She’s even explained it to her ex-boyfriend and several other close friends.

When C learned about my initial worries regarding her, she was a little devastated and I think hurt.  I’d promised her total honesty when it came to whether or not she was “stepping on my toes.”  What she didn’t understand is that I didn’t consider my worries something she needed to do anything about… no, it was all on me.  It was my stuff to own.  I think I’ve worked on it quite well and C and I are fast friends.

It probably won’t be the last time I find myself working through the compersion/jealousy feelings.  I’m glad it worked out well this time.  I found myself a great friend… and sometimes bed partner, so to speak.


Desperately Seeking Forgiveness

September 26, 2009

Someone very close to me did a bad thing a long time ago.  She cheated on her husband with my ex-husband… and the results produced a child.  She came clean to her husband, they worked through it, she had the child and her husband raised the child as his own.

I found out about it last year for the first time.

It’s funny – because you know, I slept with my best friend’s husband when they were still married and kept it secret for five years – before telling her and eventually losing the dearest friend I ever had in my life.  So I had a unique perspective on the whole situation when I found about this friend and her indiscretion.  Plus, it helps that I’m not with my ex AND I don’t like him all that much.  His actions didn’t surprise me.

If I’m honest, my friend’s actions didn’t surprise me either.  Not because she is anything like my ex-husband – not at all.  I know she didn’t deliberately do this act out of malice, out of spite or anything like that at all.  She is a good person – warm-hearted, loving, a great mother and a good friend.

How can I say that when I now know what she did to her husband, and I guess in some way, to me?  Because I can see that she didn’t do this to me.  This wasn’t about me.  This wasn’t even about her husband.  This was about my friend and her circumstances at the time.  Sometimes people make bad decisions and end up living with the results for the rest of their lives.

I guess I can’t be mad at my friend because I am her in some ways.  I guess I can’t be mad at my friend because I know the pain and guilt she is living with every day.  I guess I can’t be mad at my friend because she did this to herself.

I know that now – from personal experience.

I found out last year but she and I just talked about it last night, at her insistence.  I was quite content to live with the knowledge, be her friend and let it go.  But she wanted to talk about it – no – she needed to talk about it.  She had to let me know she didn’t do it on purpose, didn’t do it to hurt me or even her husband (now an ex-husband, by the way).

I understand.

Sometimes you just need to talk it all out – to admit what you did to someone besides yourself.  I didn’t offer her forgiveness because there was nothing to forgive from my perspective.  But maybe she can finally forgive herself.  It might make it easier to live with.  If she figures out how to do that, I hope she shares her secret.


Happy Turkey Day!

November 27, 2008

I hope that you and yours have a wonderful celebration.

J and I are headed out to eat Turkey with fellow poly folk we’ve met in the community.  N is back east visiting a family friend and enjoying turkey with that family.

Later J and I will come home, sit around watch TV, and J will daydream about all the Black Friday specials he’s been reviewing online all week.  He’s super excited to buy online this year.

So Happy Thanksgiving.  To all of you.


Pick Your Nose

October 31, 2008

OMG remember when you were young and you hated your family and you actually said out loud to people, “I choose my family and it’s X and Y and Z, etc” and then you’d name off your really close friends?

OMG that was so cool!  Thinking you’d have the same friends til you died!  Thinking you could choose…

LOL

Times for young people haven’t changed.  We did. We got older.  And wiser.

Ah it’s good to remember… when friendships seemed like they’d be forever.


Stranger Than Your Sympathy

July 22, 2008

I haven’t posted because I’ve been lost in a sea of confusion and regret. Yes, I said it.Regret. I’ve always prided myself on never looking back at past decisions and regretting the choices I made. After all, these decisions – good or bad – shaped the person I am today. But now that I am reviewing my past and looking at the loss of a dear friend because of a choice I made, well I have to admit; I regret.

Once upon a time I found myself falling in love with a good, good friend (not the friend above but another good friend) who did not return my feelings. It was wonderful and horrendous at the same time. There were times when it was just the two of us and the world was perfect. But there were also times of much confusion when his signals would cross and he’d pull away from me.

It was one of these nights where I lost sight of wrong versus right. I’d been rejected, rebuffed by the man I was falling madly in love with – in front of all of our friends no less. Humiliated and dejected, I desperately needed comfort and proof that I was desirable. Unfortunately that comfort and proof came from my dear friend’s husband (yes, the one I mentioned in the first paragraph.) Down and out himself about problems in his marriage, and alone that night, he made a pass and I didn’t refuse.

Never in my life have I regretted a decision more.Nor have I ever felt the amount of remorse as I did the next morning.And yet, it was done.I couldn’t take it back.In my pragmatic way of thinking, what I had left was damage control.I’m ashamed to say that my one and only thought of what to do was to hide this bad thing I’d done so as not to lose my friend.I vowed to take it to my grave, I swore the husband to secrecy under fear of death and I tried to cast it aside.

But I couldn’t really cast it aside because, basically, I’m a good person.I couldn’t live with the lie and remain friends with her in the same capacity.Instead, I pulled away from her.It wasn’t a conscious decision but I did take advantage of a sudden rekindling of her marriage and stepped aside to pursue my own life.  Life is funny though.Several years later found my dear friend and me in swapped roles.I was the one in a serious, committed relationship, and she was the single gal, having divorced her husband of her own will.We reconnected on so many different levels as we both grew in our new roles.

My friend had always had me on a pedestal that made me nervous – even before my transgression.As we grew even closer, the adoration/admiration from her towards me grew and that pedestal she placed me on grew higher and higher.At one point, she said to me that I was the person she trusted the most to tell her anything, and she believed me to be the most honest person with her.  I felt shameful and remorseful to be living a lie with her.This woman who meant the world to me – I loved her and I was lying to her.I had these two warring sides within – I wanted never to tell her to protect her from the ugly truth, and I wanted to tell her so I’d be worthy of the love and trust she gave me so willingly.One drunken night, I spilled everything to her.

It took one night to betray her, six years to tell her the truth of that betrayal and about a year after that to lose her friendship.Ten months later, I sit here confessing to all of you.

I consider the reasons for my confession to her after six years.I’d thought that confessing to her would make me worthy of her love and would also absolve me of the guilt, shame and remorse I felt.I thought that would be the end.But it wasn’t.

I consider the reasons why she couldn’t find it in her heart to truly forgive me.I wonder if the betrayal itself wasn’t as awful as how long it took me to tell her.The ultimate betrayal was my silence.Or perhaps the ultimate betrayal was my telling her at all; because ignorance is bliss.Or worse, maybe what hurt her most is that I didn’t do this to her specifically.She was never even a consideration that night – she was just fallout from a really bad decision.

I consider the reasons for my confession now.My friend commented on one of my blog posts right after she stopped talking to me and questioned how I could talk so freely about the pain of my broken triad, and yet, I had nothing to say for lost friendships.I wonder now if what she wanted from me was this confession – to all who read this blog – proof that she matters, proof that she was a victim of a careless and uncaring act.

So, I say back to you all now – talking about the dissolution of my triad was easier because I gave 110% to that relationship.But I did not give 110% to our friendship once I made that fateful choice all those years ago when her husband hit on me.I didn’t even give 110% when I confessed because I didn’t allow her to grieve in her own way; instead I placed my own expectations of forgiveness and absolution on her shoulders.Worse, I made it sound like my confession was a gift of truth to her, when what it truly was an outpouring of my own grief and agony.

And I regret that most of all – not that I told her the truth but that I made it all about me.All I have left to give is this last confession – with no hope for me that it will mean anything at all except one last act of contrition.

I wish I’d given even 1% thought for her that night, oh so many years ago.She deserved better.

Stranger than your sympathy

And this is my apology

I killed myself from the inside out

And all my fears have pushed you out

And I wished for things that I don’t need

(all I wanted)

And what I chased won’t set me free

(all I wanted)

And I get scared but I’m not crawlin’ on my knees

Goo Goo Dolls, Sympathy


It’s A Tough Job, But Somebody Has To Do It

July 10, 2008

Actual email conversation:

Friend: (edited for unrelated content I don’t care to share) and I’ll see you soon! (I need to get with y’all and talk about details)

Me: Details are the man’s job… I am to look pretty and forget where we put stuff… that is my job.


Of Meerkats and Ferrets

May 24, 2008

Actual conversation over drinks with coworkers/friends about reality shows:

Him: She loves that show about rodents…

Me: They are not rodents, they are meerkats!

Wife of coworker: Ah Meerkat Manor.

Him: Anyway the writers make up these elaborate, drama-filled back stories for these ferrets…

Me: They are not ferrets!!

Him: And Sean Astin is the narrator…

Me: He doesn’t know what he’s talking about…

Him: I’m certainly not going to believe a hobbit!

Me: I am not a hobbit!

Him: (laughing) Not you – Sean Astin!

Wife of coworker: Ohmigawd, that’s funny! You’re a hobbit!


Not Ready To Make Nice

March 30, 2008

Last night I had a dream about my friend – we were talking on the phone while she was at work, laughing about this and that. It felt so good, and so I suggested to my friend that we go to lunch. “We haven’t gone to lunch in so long,” I said to her. She agreed and wondered if I knew where her work place was at, since it been so long since we’d seen one another. I woke up smiling, excited about my lunch date… until I realized it was a dream.

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

Forgiveness is something that once again is on my mind because of this friend, as I realize forgiveness and forgetting are two very different things. Once, a long time ago, I betrayed this friend and kept silent. Years later I confessed, believing the truth would be better than a lie. Knowing I could lose my friend, but also knowing I would deserve it. I wasn’t blind to my betrayal, nor to the fact it was my price to pay if it was meant to be paid. I was surprised and humbled when she selflessly offered forgiveness. I didn’t question the quickness of it, and I guess neither did she.

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I learned recently that the real reason my friend let the break between us stay a break was not because of the fight about my ex-girlfriend or even her new boyfriend but because of the this one act of betrayal that she thought she’d forgiven me for but hadn’t. If I’m honest, I knew it wasn’t only about those silly fights. I knew what it was about and part of me thinks I deserve it.

It took me a long time to accept that I couldn’t change what I’d done. I can’t take it back, I can’t make it right, and I can’t make it go away. Ever. Regretting it won’t give anything but heartache. People are more than one particular act; rather they are a collection of many acts. Concentrating solely on just one act takes away from everything else that person has done or been to others. I am not that one selfish act I committed years and years ago. I won’t make excuses for it but neither will I live my life trying to make up for it. Because I can’t.

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it

In some ways, that one act allowed me to see what I am capable of – it allowed me to see that we, as humans, are capable of incredible goodness and terrible badness. All of us have the potential to be great and the potential to cause great harm. There is a line between good and evil and we all can dance on either side of the line. I know now, from personal experience, that good people do in fact do bad things without ever intentionally meaning to hurt anyone in particular or with little thought to the consequences until its too late.

The whole reason I confessed to my friend was because I realized my silence took away her right to choose. It took her right to learn and grow from her own life experiences because she didn’t know. It was selfish of me to lie about it because I was afraid of losing her. She had a right to choose her own path from that experience, and I denied her that choice by not being honest from the start. I don’t say this now to be a martyr or a victim. I just felt I’d grown from that scared, selfish girl of years ago to a person who understands that truth is the better than a lie of any kind, even a lie to yourself.

We all owe it to ourselves to look inside internally before judging people. Can you, dear reader, look back at decisions made in your own life, with respect to others in that life like husbands, girlfriends, lovers, wives, and honestly say you’ve never made a decision selfishly without thought or care to how it would affect someone else until it was too late? Can you throw around words like honor and integrity and honestly say you’ve never made a mistake?

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round

When I think about this friend now, knowing the truth about why she isn’t talking to me anymore, I go back and forth between sadness and anger. Denial and acceptance. I’m paying the price for my actions and I’m not surprised or even mad. I’ve also been judged without a word to me about the true nature of her anger, without a chance to defend myself. Not that I could. Not that I would even bother. I told her the truth and apologized without making excuses. I have nothing left to say and there is nothing I can do about the past.

It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

In the end, I owe her nothing. Not even my shame. It is mine to bear or get over if I so choose. And I choose forgiveness. No one is perfect. I refuse to dwell on a choice I made six years ago, in another life, as a different person. I will not spend my life attempting to make up for it. Nor will I allow myself to be treated poorly by the person I unwittingly hurt. Even if she has the right to be and stay mad, to not forgive, it is her own choice to make and live with.

I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’

I personally have no regrets.


If Only It Were That Simple

March 10, 2008

This past weekend Jeff asked me if I missed my friend, the one who I had a falling out with last September. “Of course,” was my response. I miss her a lot.

Such a simple statement, such a simple problem and one that could be easily rectified by simply me picking up the phone – me calling and saying hi, how are you – maybe even saying, “hey I miss you, this is stupid.”

It sounds simple at any rate… and yet even now, almost six months later, I still can’t do it. It isn’t really pride that stops me – that went away several months ago with the hurt. It’s simply the feeling that I am a bad person because I wasn’t there when her boyfriend dumped her – because I didn’t drive immediately to her house and let her cry on my shoulder.

It sounds quite simply like I was an ass – and I suppose I was – it wasn’t my intention to leave her high and dry because, as she pointed out to me, when Jeff and I had a horrible fight one night and I called her, she left a party and came to my side and spent the entire weekend with me. And, as she pointed out, she did call into work when I was terrible ill in the emergency room at a local hospital and required emergency surgery. As she pointed out to me, twice in my life, she “dropped her whole life” to stand by me.

Given that – it does sound like I’m the huge ass. I even admit – I was an ass. I didn’t mean to be insensitive and appear uncaring because the truth is I adore this woman – more than anyone I’ve ever known. She said she considered me a sister – but to me she was more. Mostly because I didn’t have a sister.  After seeing my friends who have sisters and the relationships they had with those sisters, I couldn’t compare my friend and our relationship to those sisterly pairings. I would have gone to the ends of the earth for her – and I won’t stoop now to comparing if/what I did during our time together to those two times she threw in my face so coldly in anger.

Because the truth is – I did fail her when she needed someone. I knew she was upset, but I guess I didn’t get how upset she was – because when I talked to her, she seemed sad but she seemed okay too. And she’d barely dated the guy just a few weeks, so I didn’t know the extent of her feelings. Maybe she downplayed it to me… maybe I wasn’t listening… or maybe I was tired. I’d had my own share of heartache and I was too wrapped up in it, and I guess I didn’t hear her pain. But she also didn’t share it. She didn’t call me and say, “hey I need you to come over and be with me” like I did when Jeff and I fought. She wasn’t lying doped up in a hospital, afraid of dying alone, barely remembering that she asked anyone to stay just in case.

See, the funny thing about me is – if I’m in pain – you know it. And if I need something from you, I ask for it. There is very little humility or hiding from me. I cry when I’m hurt, I yell when I’m mad, I laugh when I’m happy (which, if you know me, you know I laugh a lot). I don’t beat around the bush because, well to me, life is too damn short to pretend. Or to not ask for what you need, especially from people who love you.

I’m learning that not everyone is like me – again, such a simple thing to learn. Some people don’t ask when they need help – instead the expect you to know… just know… what they need. So where I failed my friend was in understanding that, when she called me that day, she needed me to come immediately over and be there for her. I wish I could do the whole thing over. But I can’t.

Nor can I forget what she said to me in email. I’m a simple girl – her words made me feel shame. I don’t like that feeling. So I don’t call.

For the very first time in my life, I wish I knew how to fix something which I didn’t even know was broke. I simply did not know that she was angry at me for not coming over that weekend her boyfriend just up and left without a note, a phone call, nothing. He called her eventually, and they got back together. I guess some things are easier to forgive than others. The anger I felt over her being unable to stop talking about my ex is over… although I admit it was a lot easier to get over that relationship by the simple fact I didn’t have to see her or hear about her from anyone. I certainly don’t regret that or even miss that aspect either.

But I do regret losing my friend. And for what it is worth now, I am sorry that I hurt her. It was never my intention.

If only it were that simple…


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