On a lake

Today, on a beautiful evening boat cruise on a lake, under a flawless night sky, I was aware of the presence of someone I’ve been successfully avoiding for years. There are some people (fortunately only a few) who come into your life and proceed to sow a path of utter destruction, dismantling your dearest friendships, your professional relationships, the trust between you and others, wreaking untold havok in that place deep within yourself that anchors you, that tells you you are safe.

To encounter such a person some years later, in an unexpected place, is a shock. I found myself carefully monitoring the situation, some part of me going into emergency survival mode. I did not wish any sort of confrontation, or even encounter. My goal was to get through the evening as though this Grendel were not there.

To a large degree I succeeded. The presence of a few good friends helped considerably. At the end of the evening the boat docked and I maneuvered silently past my nemesis, realizing that I had survived, that the circumstances that had allowed this person to cause such horror in my life no longer pertained, that I was relatively safe.

Of course we are never completely safe. We each, from time to time, meet our nemesis, someone capable of tearing down the things we most care about. But we move on, watchful, wary, until one day we encounter them again, perhaps under a night sky on a lake, and we observe, with a kind of watchful relief, that their dark power seems at last to be gone.

6 thoughts on “On a lake”

  1. I know what you mean. It’s hard avoiding them especially in a small town like mine. But I’ve developed careful strategies in avoiding her. Now that I know what her field of operation is, including but not restricted to pathological lying, I have unceremoniously disappeared from functions where she dwells. If she and her crazy partner pop up at functions, I’m polite and then quickly excuse myself to the garden or to kind people and friends who are protective. I do know now that I am safe. Sorry that your incident happened on a lovely lake.

  2. Oh gosh no! Steve is much too good looking to be Hephaestus. Besides, then you’d need to fool around with Ares behind his back. I seem to recall that Steve rescued you from Ares years ago. 😉

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