I've been floating along in my own little bubble. I much prefer the air in here to that of the big bad world. The air is thick and makes it hard to breathe. Detrimental perhaps to my social self but it's safe. Much safer than crying to a stranger at random. Or wanting to make them see sense. Or scream at the mother who was physically smacking her 6 month old baby because she was crying. Yes, you read that right. The world does my head in. I can't relate. I do not belong here. I belong somewhere else. I belong in a world where my daughter lives. Impossible dreams and hopes will forever linger in my mind. They'll never be any lighter to carry upon my heart. They just wont. The longing for her will still forever break my heart and crush my ribcage like a wild animal hunting it's prey. Dramatic? I think it perfectly describes that feeling when you realise your not in fact dreaming. That this world is your reality. That you do not have a baby in your arms. That baby is no longer.
I swing violently between knowing that all things happen for a reason and my daughter had a purpose yada yada to this is all bullshit and unfair. I guess that's a normal response too. We can't always be level headed, all of the time. I am rational. I'm not a screaming lunatic, well publicly at least. Maybe I'd feel better if I did do it in the middle of a crowded street?
I was told that most of the first year after losing someone you spend struggling to make it reality. To accept that it's real, that they're dead. I feel like I'll forever be waking up wondering how the fuck my life ended up this way. How the fuck did I go from blissfully pregnant to giving birth, to almost dead, to watching and waiting for my perfect looking daughter to take her very last breath? I don't know. I just don't know. I'm waiting for some kind of awakening. Doubt it.
Writing that makes me realise that I never got that "time" to grieve. Sure it's been almost a year. A whole year since my daughter was born and died but I just can't help feeling like I missed something. I could go on for eons about what I didn't get but there is something I can't put my finger on. It's just all out of order. Like I missed some process after she died. I know everyone does it differently. I just feel like I should have been at home, in private. In the place she was born, surrounded by her things. The birth smells. Her home. My home. Our home.
Instead I was a patient in a disgusting hospital and alone, completely alone.
There it is. The salty tears. Perhaps that's it.
I was separated from those I needed most. My daughter was gone and I was busy being poked and prodded and x-rayed and filled with tubes and pumps. Being examined and judged and watched.
I remember vividly only on one occasion during my hospital stay did I completely collapse in a mess of tears. Well in view of others anyway. A whole team (I'm talking 10 or more people) of medical students and the senior staff barged in and there I was in a chair wailing. They quickly apologised and left me alone in the room. They demanded the social worker see me because I was upset.
What part of that isn't normal? A woman whose had everything taken from her, including her uterus, her baby is dead and you're concerned she's acting like a crazy woman?
Okay this post was supposed to be about something completely different. In fact it was to contain the use of the word "motherfucker". Although I'm sure I could use that word on more than one occasion when describing most of my interaction with hospitals. I'm thinking that would have been more fun to blog about but it seems my heart has poured itself all over the keyboard and taken over.
I guess that's pure release of some kind. Don't know how it helps but it's worth a shot, right?
An ultimate reality believed from insightful gifts
Visions from Creator and my contemplative spirit uplifts
The reason I was born, a puzzle pieced with forgiveness divine
An expression of creativity connected, unrelated to bloodline
My greater purpose courses through the veins of my past
As surroundings are experienced with intimate contrast
I am meant to serve by transforming perceptions ignored
So that rites of passage are lived with a valued, inner reward
A deep satisfaction as I personally grow to share
That making a difference in the world is love in prayer
Each new breath of gratitude I’ll weave within nature
With discernment, not judgment to specific nomenclature
No monastery, castle or dogmatic school of thought
Just peace, love and devotion within, eternally walked and talked.
TK Rosevear