“Our bodies know that they belong; it is our minds that make our lives so homeless. Guided by longing, belonging is the wisdom of rhythm. When we are in rhythm with our own nature, things flow and balance naturally. Every fragment does not have to be relocated, reordered; things cohere and fit according to their deeper impulse and instinct.” – John O’Donohue
A pounding head is not the ideal way to start the day or new week. It’s not even full moon! At this point, I am ready to tear my head off and replace it with a new one, if that were even remotely an option. I have no clue how I am going to get through the day, all I know is that my essential oils are going to be within reach!
The train into town was full to the brim this morning, which made me wonder whether the others knew something I didn’t. Then I remembered that the Easter holidays are over and everyone is returning to school. Ugh. It was so nice not to have to ride into Lisbon without feeling like a sardine. And why do groups of women travelling together have to be so chatty so early in the morning? Good Lord, what a challenge to my patience! Maybe it’s just me who likes to travel in silence? It’s my mediation / prayer time, so all extraneous noise is an rude intrusion. Sigh, bear with me, it’s the migraine typing this morning.
So since I am lashing out at the world already, let me bring up another topic that has reared its ugly head again: catfishing.
I thought I was doing myself a favour by joining one of the international clubs here in Lisbon, one that ironically I was a member of in Berlin and left precisely because the massive catfishing messages that kept landing in my messenger turned me off. Somehow I buried this information deep in the recesses of my memory and completely forgot about it until last night. Within minutes, and I am not exaggerating here, MINUTES of uploading my profile I received three messages from men in different countries reaching out to connect, all with blurry profile pictures and strangely enough, working for offshore petroleum companies. I felt sick to my stomach. Two of them had identical messages as well, saying that they are single dads with a lovely daughter. Are we no longer safe in any networking organisation that we join to build up a social network?
Some of you have followed my misadventure of 2020 with catfishing that dragged me into a deep and dark underworld, which thankfully I managed to extricate myself from in the nick of time. I was horrified by the messages last night, and have lost any and all interest in pursuing a full membership. Mind you, as far as I know, the catfishing goes both ways, and it is not just women being hit on like this. I suppose I shouldn’t wonder why my head is pounding. Please pass the hammer.
On the other hand, the more legitimate members reached out to welcome me and I was pointed towards a professional photography community in Portugal that I had been searching for the past two months. I suppose you have to take the good with the bad, but at what cost? Are the little gold nuggets really worth all the additional aggravation? Some will say I could just click the obnoxious messages away and ignore them, like I do on other platforms, but somehow that is of little comfort. In this day and age of internet, there is hardly a platform that you can join without being inundated with spam, followed by trolls, and being catfished. It is very discouraging when you are trying to build something up and establish a foundation.
I see shades of a tough Monday ahead. I hope yours is better!
FrogDiva Thoughts 