Titled: "Juice 'em Lemons" by GabyNobody.
Video is free to download.
Be a friend, share with a friend.
Much Love.
“Take one step in the direction of your dreams and watch the Universe perform miracles to help you.”
Oct. 2020, I moved out of my rental home that I had maintained and loved for almost seven years. There I lived with no credit and two large dogs. I was invited into this new home by my in-laws after they had lived in my space for a year.
Prior to moving here, I was excited. I felt blessed. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to excel my art career, be with people that I trust, and to get out of a home that had been neglected by the homeowner for decades.
You have no idea the gratitude I shared as I communicated with my friends that I'd be moving and that I'd be with people that I love, trust, and had co-existed with so beautifully. It was a lot of work but we moved, and helped my in-laws move as well.
I should have taken the amount of junk that my father-in-law, Oscar Gregory, had stored in storage (for decades) as a clear sign of baggage to come out soon enough. After one year of living together, three weeks of moving his junk, and two weeks of unpacking... he no longer felt the need to show his family and I a glimpse of respect. It soon came to my attention that he'd been explosive, controlling, and mentally abusive to his family for as long as my husband (28 years old) can remember. Once Oscar Gregory became comfortable with calling me a Bitch, Nasty, and threatening me to have no home, that's when others I knew came forward and shared with me childhood traumatic stories about him and his lack of care for its effects on others.
I can sit here and write for hours all the fucked up shit this man has done and the zero fucks he gives about his own family but that is not the point of this article. If you would like to be stay updated to my public records of the mental abuse I witness from this man as of 2021, CLICK HERE.
The point of this is to highlight that people pick and choose what colors to show you. They pick and choose what light you will see them in. While everything came to Light to me, I felt his family's pain, their trauma, the heavy rocks they carried in their hearts. I felt their scars and their wounds forever scabbing and never healing. I felt their lack of control that they survived their whole Life. I felt the levels of crazy they had to endure, exterior and interior. I honestly lost myself for a couple of months (hence the lack of consistency of my work in that time). I lost myself in the pain, and then I lost myself in my anger and my burning desire to bring this family justice for such abuse.
It was very dark, and some days he instigates me a little more than others. I use to despise my own anger therefor in these times, I hated myself deeply. There was a lot of things that I didn't understand about my husband prior to this experience. I also had a lack of compassion and understanding towards people that stayed in relationships with terrible partners, such as my own mother.
It took me a little longer to squeeze the benefits out of this big ass lemon, but I'm tasting the antioxidants, the Vitamin C, and a little bit of magic all at once. I honor all of me once again: my joy, my anger, and all layers of myself with much thicker skin and a much more solid foundation. My relationship with my husband has strengthened. I feel so much closer to him, I feel like I know him in ways I would of never if it hadn't been for this. This gave me an opportunity to come face to face with my husband's inner magical child and I've been able to hold him, to kiss him, and to promise him that I will always be there for him. I now have hands-on-knowledge on abusive relationships and the true affects this toxic shit has in one's spirit and self-esteem.
I now have this insight and this fire within me to bring Light to the fact that Domestic Abuse can happen to anyone. It took me a while to speak up on it, I was honestly tired of fucking fighting as I feel that I've fought one thing or another all of my Life. Healing from the trauma from Sexual Abuse has been something I've done more than half my life. Like speaking about being raped, the more I have spoken about my current abusive environment- the more it comes to Light that so mane people are dealing with this shit. Now, due to COVID-19, the cases have increased, the aggression has been more constant, and the lack of options to get out of the house has put a lot of its current surviving victims in a very tight spot.
I challenge you to reach out to a friend if this is something you are experiencing. I challenge you speak out and I beg you to not hold this in.
Others, I challenge you to reach out to your neighbors, your friends, and your loved ones to tell them you love them and be there for them as much as you can.
I challenge everyone to Love one another, to be Kind, and to keep an eye and your heart open.
Click here for HELP.
Click here for free therapy in Maryland.
Click here to contact me directly. (please note that I am not a professional counselor, nor can I remove you from your situation. I offer support, love, and understanding. I also offer my fire and my commitment to do everything that I can do to help. Much Love.)
Give Love, Receive Love, Be Love.
That is all.
This week marks 52 weeks since I posted this video.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
Thank you guys for stopping by! May this coming week's challenges inspire to be stronger and kinder than ever. May this week be filled with Love, Patience, and Evolution.
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The Woman behind this event is Veronica Antipolo.
"Part midlife crisis and leap of faith, Veronica Antipolo took stand-up comedy and storytelling after getting fired from “a good job” at 45. She’s the co-founder of Mosaic Untold Lives - a storytelling platform for Women of Color, a producer, and comedian. She performed to a sold out CBC Glenn Gould Studio, published her first story, and was featured on CBC Radio. A cheerleader of women, Veronica hopes to connect people by producing events that showcase their diverse narratives through storytelling and comedy. A single mom who’s sassy and real, Veronica refuses to miss any more moments not doing these things that she loves."
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