Return to the Light

Hello there, anyone who is still around! I haven't made an appearance here since August, but I guess it seemed to be a shorter span of time to me. I apologize for the lack of new updates. These months have been filled with pain and a disinterest in expressing myself. My personal journal suffered. This blog suffered, and I apologize for leaving you without new outlets for expression. I have been dealing with deaths and major illnesses in the family, and I even recently underwent surgery to remove my gallbladder which had had me in excruciating pain for months. It has been a struggle, but now I find myself wishing to return to this blogging world and my little journal topics project. Pain has been the major factor for my absence, so let's start there for this journal topic.

When I was about to have my surgery, a professor told me a curious thing that has stuck with me. "It may be hurting badly now, but just think, you'll never remember this pain" he said. I looked at him quite puzzled and asked him to explain. "Think about it," he said, "your senses can all reproduce exact memories. You'll always know what grandma's apple pie smells like in you memory, and you can always recall the exact taste of your favorite meal...stuff like that...but no matter how hard you try to remember, your body won't allow you to recall that feeling of pain." Now that my surgery is over and I'm healing up, I've tried to remember what the pain felt like before and after. I know where the pain was and that it felt like it was stabbing, but I can't recall the exact feeling or intensity. The soreness after surgery was bad, but I really can't recall the feeling of it.

Today I want you to focus on the topic of pain. Why might it be that our bodies don't allow us to remember pain as intensely as we remember other feelings produced by our senses? What is the most pain you've ever been in? Describe how you think the pain felt then, and also describe how it feels to try and recall that pain.

Good luck and best writing!

~Cookie