Ground Zero

It’s interesting to think about how the paths we follow in our lives lead us to different points which can easily be compared with the aftermath of some devastating explosion. When we experience the death of a loved one, the life we knew while they lived is destroyed before our eyes. The shards of what was once familiar can only be seen through the veil of loss and reluctantly… we move on.  We soon find ourselves hoping that someday the devastation will be so far behind us that we can feel the loss with better understanding and renewed hope.

The same can be said when we find our view of the world altered by new life or a new perspective. Seeing your child for the first time will also place you in ground zero.  Before you are a parent, you are single person who may be part of a larger family or part of a marriage, but when you have a child, you are no longer a single part of anything. You are a parent. The responsibility for another that looks to you as the protector and provider takes hold like nothing else and changes the world forever.

Some people call these moments epiphanies of life and some call them paradigm shifts. I always think of them as explosions. The life that existed before these moments took place can only exists in our memories, and in our hearts. You will never again spend time with the one who you have lost, but you will forever hold them in your heart and mind because they continue to mean so much even after departing.  Similarly, you will never again see the world as someone who did not have a child after you have one. That persona is gone and who you are from that moment on will always be someone else.

These events that take place in our lives may seem great or small to the rest of the world, but inside of us, they are world breakers. Your first love, your first job, your first paycheck, your first betrayal, your first great accomplishment…

In time, each of us find our lives starting over again and again. We laugh, we cry and we continue… For in the end, these moments are what makes life such a tragic, adventurous, terrifyingly wonderful miracle.