Relapse

CS Lewis

Out of the wound we pluck

The shrapnel. Thorns we squeeze

Out of the hand. Even poison forth we suck,

And after pain have ease.

But images that grow

Within the soul have life

Like cancer and, often cut, live on below

The deepest of the knife,

Waiting their time to shoot

At some defenceless hour

Their poison, unimpaired, at the heart’s root,

And, like a golden shower,

Unanswerably sweet,

Bright with returning guilt,

Fatally in a moment’s time defeat

Our brazen towers long-built;

And all our former pain

And all our surgeon’s care

Is lost, and all the unbearable (in vain

Borne once) is still to bear.

Because of Harvey...many of us are still plucking out shrapnel.  The sting of reliving the waters rise, the escape, the barricade of debris, and the unforgettable stench of sewage-filled water on this first anniversary of the storm remains.

Wounds are ripped wide open with one look at our bank accounts and the moments we remember, "Oh, I don't have that anymore."

Trauma 

Remembers

Flashbacks

A cry of something that needs to come out and does

so in the only way it knows how.

Triggers

Anything can nudge an emotion and bring it to the surface.

Numbness

Pushing the monster far down until it eventually raises its ugly head

But Harvey doesn't have the last word...We do! Today we remember but eventually we too will rise from the devastation. 

It will take time and guts, but through conversation, writing, bringing it before our God in an honest way, we can find a greater appreciation for life, new purpose, values and strength and a deeper faith.* We don't have to remain a flood victim.

Because of Harvey...We are survivors and we remember that the LORD, our God brought us out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm. Deut. 5:15

*Thanks  to H. Norman Wright, an amazing grief and trauma counselor and author, for his sensitivity on trauma. His thoughts are stuck in my mind, so I'm sure much of this would be found in his extensive writings. I must give him credit.