Embrace Sadness and Reap Joy

Feel the pain; find the joy.  Yes, it can be done.  The Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)  group that I periodically join in as facilitator poignantly teaches me this yin yang of life.

A bicycle accident leaves a man bereft of his ‘old’ life.  He survives but he loses his life as he knew it.  His  dental practice, his marriage, his basic independence all gone with the shattered pieces of his bike.

Everyone has lost their prior lives due to tragic accidents and strokes.

How does one adjust to such an extreme and vastly different reality?    How does one regain one’s heart and soul when the mind  has taken such huge hits?

The loss is so profound.  The life has fallen so far; like that of the scarecrow in the wizard of oz, it has to be put back together.

They are miraculously put back together.   But altered lives live there now.  The work is in helping them heal their hearts and souls so they can open up to adapting to and discovering a new quality of life.

Their struggles are bravely expressed.  Their faith and gratitude are exquisitely articulated. Their support and sometimes slight impatience with one another are beautifully and amusingly spoken.

Memory is a ‘gonner’ for most.  They live in the here and now.  The inhibition filter is gone for some, which proves to be quite funny at times.

What truly contributes to the uplifting experience of being in their presence is the ‘realness’, the authenticity and the outpouring of their deeply felt emotions.   They express the pain and yet they see the glory.      

I honor their spirit.

 

I would like to mention here two amazing blogs that beautifully combine and weave together these seemingly opposites – pain and joy.  Herein lies the challenge – to bring joy into one’s life along with the pain and sadness.  Yes, they really can live together.

http://www.kellehampton.com/

http://awishcomeclear.com/blog/