Surviving the First Shock…

In any injury or illness or accident, the first pain, the first fear, the first disappointment, the first sharpness of any pain subsides – enough at least to be bearable. But mercifully, usually the first sharpness of any pain subsides – enough at least to be bearable. And mercifully, this is true in other things also. Time – even a little time – tends to dull the edge of anguish, and what we thought we couldn’t learn to live with (or learn to live without). Some twenty centuries ago Seneca had something to say on this subject: “No one could endure adversity,” he said, “if while it continued, it kept the same violence that its first blow had….No state is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find in it some consolation….It is possible to soften what is hard, to widen what is narrow, and burdens will press less heavily upon those who bear them skillfully.” The shock, the fear, the first sharp pain, the sudden sorrow, do soften somewhat as time takes over. And in any case, we can’t afford to assume that anything which, for the moment, is unalterable is also unbearable. We all have to learn to live with some painful or disappointing circum, stances and situations – but blessedly, with faith and work and patient, purposeful waiting, the first acuteness does subside, and we learn to adjust our lives to our losses, to our disappointments, to our failures and frustrations. To repeat the sentence from Seneca: “No on could endure adversity if while it continued, it kept the same violence that its first blows had.” And we may well be grateful for faith in an everlasting plan and purpose, for faith in compensation and in an ultimate, just judgment – and for the blessed, healing, softening touch time that dulls the edge of shocks and sorrows, even when it doesn’t undo them. Hold on – and let time soften the shocks and sorrows.