Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

BeGoodPostcard1909Sensing

New musk.

Accustomed to something less or more or sweeter or heavy…  This and that tossed around and I’m blind to the meaning of you in my life.  The feeling is grey fog and sweet quiet wondering.  Want grafted painfully to restraint.  I’m willing not to know, but still struggle behind my eyes, wiggle in my seat, calm the urge to spring towards your body, a rabid animal.  You watch my watching and take it personally a little bit.  Uncomfortable shifting around.  My mind wanders to things that entertain…

I want to taste the shape of your smell, round and spicy, red wine dripping down my esophagus staining the space behind my breastbone, and wetting everything on the way to center.

I am sense-drunk.  These moments are relaxing and relaxing is something I don’t trust.  But I’m resolved; I won’t wrestle you.  I want to bask.  Slip your skin over mine like bike leathers for warmth. safety. pleasure.  Your value in skins: Connection.

Hair prickling, cunt throbbing, gut satisfying, emotion stoking, heat generating, connection…

And sitting with myself is the prize at the end of the day.

And it is the pain of umbilical cord sliced through.

Connection.  Together.  Alone.

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I was briefly involved with someone once who was in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” relationship.  Normally this type of thing doesn’t fly with me, I’m the type who wants to meet your primary partner and maybe even other partners before jumping into bed or complicated emotional unfoldings.  But this situation was different…  When we met there was an instant connection and my playmate told me the story of his very long term relationship, and how they had come to decide that a don’t ask don’t tell arrangement was best for everyone involved.  I trusted the story and connected with this person over a period of a few months sporadically.

It was fun for a while.  But over time it grew sour, on my end mostly I believe.  Thing is, I think that because this person didn’t really practice open communication at home, there was no precedent for open communication to be a part of any relationship they were having…  And it turns out that doesn’t work for me.

Time passed and we fell off with one another.  I still appreciate the time we had together while it was good, but my lesson is learned in this arena:  I want people practiced in the art of negotiation and communication in my bed (and shower and hotel floor).  We have a longer shelf life and it’s filled with more variety, less angst, and though we’re always autonomous people choosing one another at the end of the day, I like to know that my choices can tell me all of what’s on their minds.  I want to know these things because they value me, and because they value the telling.

To Breath and Being,
~ Karin

If you like my blog, please check out my Patreon Page and consider supporting me, or just click here: Support the Artist

~Thank you.

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Be an ABCs contributor:  Have a story or perspective to share about kink or want to promote a kinky event?  Email Karin directly at: Karin@ABCsOfKink.com or fill out the as-anonymous-as-you-want-it-to-be feedback form below and you could see your writing published as a part of Wednesday’s “Perspectives on Kink: Conversations with the Community” blog on this site.  Don’t know what to write about?  Consider answering some of the Survey Questions I posted recently.  Happy writing, and thanks!

Transparency

 Transparency in relationships is something that’s been on my mind a lot lately…  How does it work for you?

Photo by Yellow.Cat

Photo by Yellow.Cat

I am the type of person who needs complete transparency to feel safe and build trust or keep trust with my partners.  I know it doesn’t function like this for everyone.  I will say that it seems to me that the successful poly-type people I know who are in relationships all seem to be people who tell one another everything (whatever everything means to them) and who can process with one another/communicate with one another extremely well.  They also are people who care deeply for one another’s feelings and needs as well as their own.

I like that.  I like that both as a person who dates people who have primary partners (I don’t often have to worry where I stand with someone’s significant other, and I know I can reach out to them personally if something seems awry), and as someone who endeavors to build relationships that are lasting, respectful, and healthy for everyone involved.  I like that practicing transparency will probably bring me closer to the people I love in the long run.

For more ideas related to transparency, you can do some research on Radical Honesty, and think about the ways you might censor yourself (much less mislead or edit your thoughts and feelings when sharing them with the people around you).

What does transparency mean to me?   It means being 100% honest with yourself.  It means taking that honesty and sharing it with your partners.  It means risking displeasing your partners at times because it is as important to name your needs outside the relationship as it is to cultivate what happens within the relationship itself.  It means listening to the parts of your brain that don’t want to broach an important subject because you are afraid of what will happen if you do, how you will feel, how the energy in the room might change…, but taking the steps to do it anyhow.  It means telling the people you care about the things you know they’ll want to know before they ask a half dozen questions about a subject.  It means taking responsibility for making mistakes – we all make mistakes.  It means letting the people around you know when something has shifted or changed, and advocating for that shift to be worked through.  It means taking responsibility for your feelings, your fears, and your part in the communication process.  It indicates (to me) a level of loyalty to both yourself and your partners.  It is taking responsibility for your autonomy by sharing yourself with the people who you have chosen to be, in some ways, your biggest supporters.

In short if means telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…  and then admitting the times you realize you haven’t been so good at doing that and getting better.

The best part about it it that it gets easier the more you practice.  You might be astonished by what happens when you find people who want to support you – who love you for who you are, not who they wish you’d be – and who give you positive reinforcement for sharing your needs, thoughts, desires, and most intimate self.

To Breath and Being,
~ Karin

If you like my blog, please check out my Patreon Page and consider supporting me, or just click here: Support the Artist

~Thank you.

###

Be an ABCs contributor:  Have a story or perspective to share about kink or want to promote a kinky event?  Email Karin directly at: Karin@ABCsOfKink.com or fill out the as-anonymous-as-you-want-it-to-be feedback form below and you could see your writing published as a part of Wednesday’s “Perspectives on Kink: Conversations with the Community” blog on this site.  Don’t know what to write about?  Consider answering some of the Survey Questions I posted recently.  Happy writing, and thanks!

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