Grief - Three Word Wednesday

There is definitely a recurring theme in my work lately. Not surprising considering my current "loss of job" situation. Sometimes, you just can't get away from your reality, even in your fiction.

Grief

The first stage
Although short lived
Is usually shock
Your body reacts first
Hands sweat
Stomach does a few flips
Your mind following close behind
Face stoic, the disbelief
Not visible to the outside
And then it passes

The Second Stage
Is full on denial
You hear the words
But they don't quite sink in
And you push all thoughts aside
And keep on plowing through
Your daily routine
As if nothing had changed.

And then you hit the third stage
Usually this is depression
That moment when you
Curl back into yourself
And want nothing to do
With the world around you
You can't think
Have hardly any motivation to act
And it takes all you've got
To simply go through the motions

It's the fourth stage, though
That hits mostly everyone the hardest
It starts as a trickle of panic
Touching only the edges of reason
And hangs out there
On the sidelines
Just waiting
Waiting for the opportunity to pounce

The smallest trigger
And then "it" happens
The tears,
The hysterics,
The break-down
The "woe-is-me
My world is falling apart"
moment.
And then that too passes.

The final stage,
Acceptance
And in that
We all differ
How we deal
We preservere
We carry on
With focus
With calm
With angst
With worry
With a heavy load
Or a lightened heart
But we carry on.

Copyright 2008 - Karina

For Three Word Wednesday: "touching, visible, stage".