The Eternal Present

Cairns - Mama Toto
Originally uploaded by Adagio.

Grief associated with a current situation can effortlessly trigger off past grief. Tickle it awake. Past grief becomes as present as its trigger. Can overwhelm it. One minute, a person may be grieving the loss of something current and the next, reliving the grief associated with a former loss. The switch is unconscious. Instantaneous. For an indeterminate period of time, former loss overwhelms current loss. One might think that each arousal of past grief would edge it closer to a final resolution. And perhaps this is so. Still, I am more inclined to believe that some experiences of grief will remain ever-sensitive to those emotions that in some way imitate the original feeling of loss. Ever-vulnerable to arousal. And though, over time, relieved of much of the original pain, these griefs may never subside entirely. In fact, may never subside in the least. The eternal present.