Wednesday's Woe - Triggered Trauma, Triggered Trauma ~Tommy Prince

How We Survive

If we are fortunate, we are given a warning.

If not, there is only the sudden horror,

the wrench of being torn apart:

of being reminded that nothing is permanent,

not even the ones we love,

the ones our lives revolve around.

Life is a fragile affair.

We are all dancing on the edge of a precipice,

a dizzying cliff so high we can't see the bottom.

One by one, we lose those we love most 

into the dark ravine.

So we must cherish them without reservation.

Now. Today. This minute.

We will lose them or they will lose us someday.

This is certain.

There is no time for bickering.

And their loss will leave a great pit in our hearts:

a pit we struggle to avoid during the day and fall into at night.

Some, unable to accept this loss, 

unable to determine the worth of life without them,

jump into that black pit spiritually or physically,

hoping to find them there.

And some survive the shock, the denial, the horror, 

the bargaining, the barren empty aching, the unanswered prayers,

the sleepless nights when their breath is crushed

under the weight of silence and all that it means.

Somehow, some survive all that and,

like a flower opening after a storm, 

they slowly begin to remember

the one they lost in a different way…

The laughter, the irrepressible spirit, the generous heart,

the way their smile made them feel, 

the encouragement they gave even as their own dreams were dying.

We will still cry. 

We will always cry.

But with loving reflection 

more than hopeless longing. 

And that is how we survive.

That is how the story should end. 

That is how they would want it to be.

~Mark Rickerby

Wednesday's Woe

Triggered Trauma, 

Triggered Trauma

~Tommy Prince

Personally, what has happened when we have tried to watch the news about the December 14th tragedy on television, is... Triggered Trauma. We wanted to know what was going on, but we couldn't deal with the magnitude of what happened. 

It is too devastating to take in…

Just like it was too devastating hearing the police officer say that Merry Katherine was killed...

I couldn't function. I couldn't breathe. Everything slowed down. It felt like I had been hit with a stun gun. I couldn't take in the magnitude of what he was speaking. It was difficult to focus. I couldn't complete small tasks. And I was overcome with an overwhelming sense of sadness.

I am experiencing some of the same symptoms after hearing about the December 14th mass shooting. On a smaller scale, but still it has had a powerful impact on me...

I am undone. 

If it has impacted me like this, and I am far away from the location of the tragedy, as I think about the child-loss parents, the surviving children, the surviving staff, and the community around them, I cannot imagine what they are going through. 

But then again, unfortunately, I know something that they don't: 

They Have No Idea What They Are In For In The Days Ahead...

The media attempting to cover the trauma is doing a totally inadequate job of even coming close to capturing what all these victims are in for. The media can never communicate to the country at large (or the world for that matter) what these people are going to be facing in the coming days, months, years, and even lifetimes ahead.

But then again, some things are unspeakable...