Parallel Perceptions (when the world changes)

I had always believed Perception to be a very powerful thing. After all it's how we interpret the world around us. How and what we perceive can directly affect our thoughts, emotions and how we apply our energy to our actions. But it wasn't until my Father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly, that I came to see how powerful it really is!

My family have always been very close and my Dad played a strong and constant part in my daily life. So when he died so very suddenly, it essentially threw my perception of the world into disarray; like I had awoken to a completely foreign place, where everything was different yet exactly the same. To be honest it's the closest I can imagine to being in a parallel universe. You know how in science fiction movies or TV shows when we follow a character who is thrust into a parallel world where they are in the same time and place, meeting the same people, but that the past has unfolded slightly differently and so despite the similarities, there is a clear and distinct difference. Of course to the people of this second universe everything remains the same. But to the character arriving from elsewhere, everything is totally different.

That's exactly how I felt when I first returned to work. Day one was a very unsettling experience, as while everything looked exactly the same, with the same exact people going about the same exact activities in the same exact way; from my perception it was all completely different somehow. As though the world had changed drastically and irrevocably, but only for me, as to all of my friends and colleagues it was simply business as usual. Of course it wasn't because the world had changed (apart from my Father being gone) so much as my perception of it had. Much like with the character in the sci-fi movie, magically finding themselves in a parallel world. Where they were the only one affected by the sudden and unexpected event (the only one who witnessed the shift from Universe A to Universe B) and so only they are aware of the change. I think that this is the most isolating part about grief and loss, what makes it so difficult to explain your thoughts and feelings to others. Because it's a very personal thing, that impacts people on varying levels. So unless you've been affected directly by the loss (or a loss of relatable impact) then it can be very hard to understand exactly what someone is experiencing. Again, think about how the character in the movie tried to explain how things were different, but as the world appeared the same to everyone else they simply couldn't relate to his perception.

When we experience a shift in perspective, nothing is ever the same again; but only for ourselves. Much like a multi-verse, our worlds are all slightly different due to our past's having unfolded slightly differently. So when we shift from one to the other we will witness the difference, but to those who reside in one or the other then nothing will be different. We can only learn to adjust to the changes...

#thoughtsofsteel

Images courtesy of Pixabay

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Best wishes
Westley xx