7

Its been quite a while since I visited this space.No matter how busy I got or how other things commanded my attention I have always needed to be here and say what was on my mind ..As always there was a deluge of thoughts.....So ,I started thinking about something as basic as days of the week ....sun, mon,tue,wed,thur,fri, sat........Ah !! 7 ... There's my blog entry:-)

Now there's a long list of sevens 7 continents , 7wonders of the world ,7 vows of marriage,the 7deadly sins(pride, envy,gluttony ,lust,anger,greed ,sloth),
7 virtues(humility,kindness,abstinence,chastity, patience,liberality, diligence),7 corporal works of mercy (feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to strangers, clothe the naked, visit the sick, minister the prisoners, bury the dead),7 gods for the Egyptians, 7 heavens for the Moslems, 7 angels for the Parsees, 7 sacred horses , for the Persians,the moon changes phase every 7 days,7 colors of the rainbow and the 7 musical notes of the diatonic scale (do, re, me, fa, so, la, te).

And then I stumbled across the most important 7's of all.........The 7 stages of grief .Important ?? Why?? Well, because I did not know grief existed in stages and those too 7 ......So.....What is it ??

Grief is a "deep, prolonged mental anguish over a loss" and has multiple causes ..So anything from experiencing homesickness, death of a loved one,friend , divorce ..to ...loss of health, mobility ,freedom, freindships,home or possessions can lead to grief.It's is recognized to have 7 stages :

(1) Shock :or Disbelief that the loss has occurred.
(2) Denial :is the stage in which the person refuses to accept the loss has occurred. (
3) Bargaining:this involves attempts to reconcile the loss by making deals with other people, sometimes also with deity.
(4) Guilt is marked by statements of "if only I had done/been . . . ".
(5) Anger is a natural stage everyone must pass. Anger may be directed toward the loss, the person lost, or even deity.
(6) Depression :this stage comes and goes throughout the grief process. Resignation at the end of the depression indicates that the truth of the loss has been accepted and the person is ready to move on.
(7) Acceptance and Hope means that you understand your life will never be the same but it will go on with meaning and hope

Why did I not know this ...Because I thought it was all the same..One long process, no stages ...Have I gone through these 7 stages??..You betchya ....Have I moved on from depression to hope and acceptance ??......hmm!! Yes because there is no life without hope , ever!!

Some people make recoveries from grief sooner ,others take time , some others; they don't really get over it ..just keep vacillating between the 7 stages...Me,I could never put my life in limbo because of grief came into my life and it didn't somehow go the way I thought it would........ WHY ?? because ......

" Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life"

So indulge life and love ..not GRIEF .