Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

Unconscious Metabolism

Unconscious Metabolism

I cannot imagine these things.

I simply cannot…

And I hope you do not have to either.

All I know is that family should live close to family – be as near to each other as possible.

Do life together – even the hard parts.

The twilight existence of unconscious metabolism becomes an unbearable burden, usually left to an institution, where the family, unable to attain closure, visits with increasing rarity, until the inevitable fatal bedsore or pneumonia sets in. Some insist on this life and embrace its possibility, eyes open. But many do not, or cannot, and the neurosurgeon must learn to adjudicate.

-Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air (Amazon)

Grief Is A Lazy Susan?

Grief Is A Lazy Susan?

Grief is a lazy susan in that it spins and stops – sometimes uncontrollably.

If you have ever lost a loved one, you know this to be true.

You can laugh, cry, and get into a fist-fight all before lunch.

It’s a completely erratic feeling if you want to know the truth.

Like most things, you need to give it time.

Grief, as I read somewhere once, is a lazy Susan. One day it is heavy and underwater, and the next day it spins and stops at loud and rageful, and the next day at wounded keening, and the next day numbness, silence.

-Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies (Amazon)

Sterling Terrell