Dearest Shy;
Let me be the first to respond to your last question. If you associate tickling as a part of childishness, then you've already answered your question. But, a word of advice from someone who buried their love of tickling for nearly twenty years:
It doesn't always work!! If you're like me, tickling has been in me since I was a child. I buried it so people wouldn't find me strange. Besides, adults don't tickle other adults--that's what kids do, right? I always wondered why I never was fulfilled physically. I thought for years I had some sort of problem. I did--I never shared what I was really feeling inside until I met someone else who drew it out of me. I ended up stuck in a relationship I had no business being in because he tapped into my secret and I lost control. Things spun way out of control and I was hurt. My lessons about self control come from personal experience. I've since come out of that mess and will never get involved with him again.
When I first found the TMF, I had so many emotions I didn't know what to act on first. So I hung around the site to make sure the content was appropriate, then I started posting. I'm still the same person I was a year ago, maybe even better. I'm in the process of completing my Bachelor's Degree with a pretty decent gpa. One of my children is an adult now and the other a high-school junior. They have never been deprived of anything. I've met people from all walks of life, ages, races, religious affiliations, political viewpoints. All have families, jobs, issues of life. They seem pretty normal to me. If issues arise that make me uncomfortable, I just don't participate in those threads.
With the exception of a very few, the people here have been wonderful to me and have made me feel more normal than anyone in church (not meant to be insulting, just a simple fact). They've helped fill in the blanks that the bible sometimes leaves out. The TMF is not the only life I live, either. And I don't think the members here consume their lives with this either.
You have to learn how to balance aspects of life. That's being mature, not denying something God has allowed to be in you. He has allowed us to eat, but we are not supposed to overeat (I need lots of help in this area!🙂 ) We can drink, but drunkeness is discouraged. We can tickle and be tickled, but within certain parameters. It's about balance and not making yourself miserable by denying something so simple.
Hope this helps. Still trying to reduce the length of these posts folks. But this is an issue I still sometimes struggle with myself and it's kind of cathartic to extend some help to someone else.
shy
