Pieces of the People We Love

“Grief is not linear,” that is what one of my friends told me this week when I got blind-sided by some unwelcome news. Sorrow certainly cannot be mapped out on a chart or fit into a curve. It may have some general trends but unforeseen events can spike one back into the red zone.

Human emotion tends to be like natural disasters: unpredictable. The fault line forms a connection between plates pushing together or scraping apart. It is that meandering flaw that takes its time before it finally delineates the break- the disaster. It is a place where fools build homes. They live in peace for a short time, forgetting the imminent danger until the (un)expected event occurs.

Some plates pushed together at a time when I felt safe and a forgotten surge of emotion pushed forward. It can’t be taken back; what is done is done but the energy has been expended and exhaustion is left.

I must admit, however, that feeling this way has made me feel safe again. I think I will open up my blog, the threat seems to have past.