The Human Spirit (posted on Feb 1st, 2009)

*Transferring a whole bunch of random notes from Facebook. I have experienced loss, and I have been in close proximity with people who experience it as well. Being in my line, sometimes I have to be at the eye of the storm, the one telling loved ones that someone would no longer be by their side. We had a class on empathy, and we had a class on breaking bad news. But there was never a discussion on handling grief, or going on untouched with the aftermath, included in our syllabus. We were warned, to be empathic, but not involved. It was widely believed that doctors were more than human, that we were one step above. But all these dramas and soaps involving the lives of doctors show the world otherwise. We are nothing but human. Sometimes, in an attempt to cope with the loss of patients, some of us deaden ourselves so we don't feel the pain. In short, some become less than human. But I am not only talking about death here, although that loss is permanent. Loss encompasses separation, as well as break-ups as well. And people always think their world stops there, that there is nothing left to live for. But the clock still ticks, and in time, people move on. They keep on living, and they find other things to hold on to. That, in my opinion, is the beauty of the human spirit. We grieve, we feel the loss, and honor it, but we move on.