Last month was hard as hell, even now the effects of all that happened are lingering into this fresh new month. I usually like to think of myself as a magical thinker– I tend to soothe myself my imagining everything being better, almost as if by magic. [Perhaps, that is a problem for another day?] Last month, though, I couldn’t even bring myself to do that. In fact, it took every bit of my mental strength to keep myself afloat. There were a series of downs that have made me continue to wonder if things will ever get better. I think I tend to romanticize what that even means, maybe to the point where the small victories in my life start to look inconsequential in comparison. To be perfectly honest the idea that there isn’t a solution or a positive outcome in my life scares the shit out of me. This month, and last, have been rough in that regard, I keep thinking; is this really it.
I keep speaking of April as this horrible month, but to be honest it was a series of really shitty but small bumps. And maybe it was that they were so small that made it all the worse, because if something so small could uproot my life maybe it was never as stable as I led myself to believe.
So, what happened? April began with the horrible decision to put our old beloved dog to sleep, but old age didn’t kill him. Is anything in my life ever peaceful? I think that’s what made it all the more horrifying, here was this very old dog (17 this year!!) that was supposed to die of old age– you know that peaceful death that creeps up in our sleep. But maybe death is never peaceful, maybe just like life it’s messy and awful. Instead, it was an accident, and a rushed decision where we had to say; that no we didn’t want this old boy to fight anymore. I said earlier that April was a series of small bumps, and in a way that’s true, because his death was something we had been preparing for– dogs don’t live that long this is a truth we all know when we bring these fur babies into our lives. But it was, also, something that still hasn’t sunken in. Some people think of loss as this huge overwhelming thing that comes all at once, but for me it has been more of waves– it comes and goes.
Then not long after this, I got involved in a small accident that left me immobile. I’ve dealt with physical pain a lot in my life, but typically I have always been able to push myself through it. This time to have something that made it so I could not leave even if I wanted to was a completely different experience. I have never felt this claustrophobic in my own skin before. In a way it has made me appreciate the movement I do have, but then the third horrible thing happened, where even had I truly wanted to leave and push through the pain I physically could not have done it. The last horrible thing, was that I became severely ill. Being ill, on top of my injury, really messed with my head. I was largely in capable of moving, and I had horrible brain fog.
All these things combined made it so that my routine was severely messed up, and I had really no idea until then how much of my identity I have tied to this daily routine. I felt out of it, and almost as if I had no purpose. I do feel silly thinking that, and yet it is my truth. This month has also taught me that people around me don’t care when they deem your problems small, not even if they turn around and complain about equally “small” problems. The mantra that has been thrown in my face: but so and so has it worse so count your blessings, isn’t helpful it’s just called being an asshole.
And maybe this all happened to teach me a lesson. Perhaps, part of it is to value the amount of physical mobility I do have left. Perhaps, the other is to stop caring so deeply about others who don’t reciprocate the same energy back. Maybe the lesson is that life is chaotic, and to take it one day at a time? For now, life is still feeling interrupted.
Into The Void 