It's funny how life can turn on a dime.
Chaos, I've been silent till now, but not without thoughts for you. But my thoughts are scattered, and I am personally quite emotionally numb. A friend found in April that he has developed brain cancer. It could not be completely removed, so now he's undergoing radiation and chemotherapy. His wife finally became pregnant in December with their first child, a baby girl, due in August. She is out of her mind with stress at precisely the wrong time. Angel and the situation with her father and her brother. We all feel her desperate need for positive outcomes. My own situation is fucked up beyond comprehension and I live each day in terror of where it is all leading. Safe for now, but feeling like I'm living someone else's catastrophe of a life and realizing I won't ever "retire" or understand what it means not to be a burden on family or society.
On the other hand, I've got friends who are secure and safe. They buy shiny new motorcycles and find love, happiness, and rewarding opportunities wherever they turn. They are seemingly oblivious to the mental and physical anguish so many others of us face.
I'm sure there must be a point to all of this. We must find strength in the midst of our adversity and calamity. Somewhere therein lies peace and comfort.
I know you are physically hurting, Chaos. There's probably a lot of mental anguish, too, as you turn over in your mind all the alternatives to your actions amid the flames.
For you I wish peace of mind and freedom from pain, neither of which will come easy. But I feel sure you can find it if you keep a constant lookout for it. It's what we must all do - seek a way to transform adversity into opportunity and share a little hope along the way.
Take care and become strong.