Simply..deeply sad....

23/4/2020

Today I realised that what I am feeling is deeply sad.

It actually took a bit of thinking to realise that sadness is my dominant emotion right now. Just naming it has somehow been helpful. I am very much a 'glass half full' kind of person and if I feel a bit down can usually talk myself out of it, but this sadness can't be talked away and no amount of distracting activity seems to assuage it.

Like grief perhaps, I just have to learn to live alongside it.

I am sad for all the people who are suffering, and who will suffer, and whomI feel I should be helping.

It's an emotional time - do you know what your feelings are? Have you named them? Would it help?

Meanwhile the tulips suffuse with colour..

13 Comments

Gail

23/4/2020 03:53:09 am

That’s it, sadness.
I’ve been counting my many and manifold blessings but that doesn’t relieve the feeling. My sadness is for others.
I will follow your wise idea and just live along side it.

Freda

23/4/2020 01:57:39 pm

That's all I can think to do for now Gail.

Mary

23/4/2020 05:34:01 am

I read this article a couple of weeks ago in the Harvard Business Review. It helps explain what you are feeling. https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief

Freda

23/4/2020 01:58:22 pm

Thank you Mary for this good article.

julia

23/4/2020 07:44:50 am

Yes....i am experiencing it also, Freda. I’m so fortunate in my own life. But deeply sad for the people who are suffering, thru loss of loved ones, their own health, their businesses...the lack of love, hugs, shared laughter...and to go to the store and have everyone averting their eyes, avoiding each other..the empty streets and shuttered businesses, the fear we all have..and the knowing that life will not be the same as before. A deep well of grief. I have no business “analyzing” you..but i wonder if perhaps your time in venice was a suspended time..and now that you are home, reality is sinking in....everything is so different... it takes time...it’s simply too hard to truly grasp what has happened.

Freda

23/4/2020 02:02:14 pm

Venice was challenging and I needed to concentrate on so many things which at home I would do without thinking...so now that there is more time to think....as you say it is sinking in.

Sheena

23/4/2020 08:14:48 am

The quietness in the streets does give a slightly melancholy edge to life and most people are anxious. I keep thinking I am depressed but I think you have named the emotion correctly and it is sadness. But I can hear children playing in a garden just up the street and the blackbird is singing his heart out so am holding the thought that it will pass. Not quickly but it will pass.

Freda

23/4/2020 02:04:09 pm

Such an important thought to hold on to Sheena. Children, blackbirds, spring too!

cathy

23/4/2020 12:01:55 pm

you've nailed it, freda. sadness...i can so relate to that. for the first time in probably my life, i'm still in my pajamas & it's 3:00 in the afternoon.

Freda

23/4/2020 02:05:35 pm

Oh Cathy thanks for sharing that :-)

Lisa

23/4/2020 01:20:56 pm

Hi Freda, I have been calling what I am feeling global grief. I do not have a loved one who has had the virus but I am often thinking of all of those in the world who are suffering and dying and I am deeply sad. I have access to clean food, clean water and the wonderful rural property that is my home. My garden is a great solace right now and is the rebirth that is spring in general. I can work from home. I do try to name my feelings and I find it does help. Thank you for your blog. I have been reading it from the beginning. Though I don't often comment, your blog is solace for me as well. Take care.

Freda

23/4/2020 02:10:34 pm

Lisa how lovely that you have been reading since the beginning! Global grief is a very apt term and I'd love to think that we may be able to act together globally and cooperate to deal with this crisis. I'm glad you find your garden is a solace (and that you say the same about my blog - what a kind thing to say.) Thank you for commenting.

Judy

1/5/2020 10:14:43 am

Joy and grief make uneasy companions, but we need to learn how to let them both breathe. There is no virtue in letting one languish because of the other. There is a scripture that says "rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep". If I were dispossessed of my joy, my burdens would become unbearable.

Simply..deeply sad....

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