THE THINGS THEY CARRIED #2

It's one of those overcast 7 a.m. Pacific Northwest June mornings that looks better in black and white than in color.






















Chapter 1, page 49, From SEVEN CHOICES, by Elizabeth Harper Neeld, PhD:

THE TERRAIN OF OUR ACTIVE GRIEVING

Life As It Was
The Event of Loss
Life and Loss Integrated
Freedom from Domination of Grief

IMPACT: Experiencing the unthinkable
CHOICE: To experience and express grief fully

SECOND CRISIS: Stumbling in the dark
CHOICE: To endure with patience

OBSERVATION: Linking past to present
CHOICE: To look honestly

THE TURN: Turning into the wind
CHOICE: To replan and change our lives to include but not be dominated by the loss

RECONSTRUCTION: Picking up the pieces
CHOICE: To take specific actions

WORKING THROUGH: Finding solid ground
CHOICE: To engage in the conflicts

INTEGRATION: Daylight
CHOICE: To make and remake choices

I just realized that I have come to the third choice and entered that process.

SEVEN CHOICES

Am reading Seven Choices again. My ability to concentrate is slowly returning.


















Chapter 2

SECOND CRISIS:

STUMBLING IN THE DARK

I want to go home, to ride to my village gate.
I want to go back, but there's no road back.

Mei Sheng and Fu I
First Century B.C.

(from Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World: Seven Choices, Elizabeth Harper Neeld, Ph.D.)

Calendar Series: 47th Month / Talking About What is Lost and What is Not Lost (1989)

Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World: Seven Choices 

RESCUE A fire was burning. In another room Somebody was talking. Sunlight slanted Across the foot of my bed, and a glass of water Gleamed where it waited on a chair near my hand. I was alive and the pain in my head Was gone. Carefully I tried thinking Of those I had known. I let them walk And then run, and then open their mouths the way It used to cause the throbbing. It didn’t hurt Anymore. Clearer and clearer I stared Far into the glass. I was cured. From now on in my life there would be a place Like a scene in a paperweight. One figure in the storm Would be reaching out with my hand for those Who had died. It would always be still in that scene, No matter what happened. I could come back to it, Carefully, any time, to be saved, and go on. (Poem by William Stafford on p. 344 of FINDING DAYLIGHT AFTER LOSS SHATTERS YOUR WORLD: SEVEN CHOICES, by Elizabeth Harper Neeld, Ph.D.) The word MOURNING in Sanskrit means "to remember." Karma Repair Kit: Items 1-4