Thursday, 14 January 2010

Slow Learner

It has been 506 days since my daughters were born.
It has been 503 days since Georgina died.
That sounds so long ago.
Time passes. Inexorably.

I think that I have cried every single day since then.
Tears.
Variable amounts.
Different strengths.
But tears.

Fewer now. Weaker. Thinner. Cooler.
But they still fall.

Yet I refuse to purchase a waterproof mascara.

Perhaps because I don't want to admit that I will cry at some point today.
Perhaps because I don't want to admit that I changed.
Perhaps because I don't want to admit that she died.

Perhaps because I secretly like having black circles of mascara under my eyes.
To remind myself.

Or perhaps I am just a slow learner.

19 comments:

  1. a beautiful post, thank you.

    I think we hold on to what we have left, and if it's mascara, well then it's mascara. I wish it was georgina and Fionn and the all the other babies. Sigh.

    If only I could change the world.

    big hug

    xx

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  2. Beautiful and tragic. This poem speaks so much to all of our pain. xo

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  3. Oh you made me smile, I too have those dark Alice Cooper eyes everyday, unyet still hasn't occurred to me to buy waterproof mascara!
    It's sad, unyet it made me smile.

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  4. sometimes its those tears that make us feel closer to our little ones. *Hugs* Thinking of you and Georgina.

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  5. I have so many tears and I now try to embrace every tear that I shed as they are for my babies, the dreams I had for them, and for how much I miss them. xx

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  6. You arent a slow learner.

    Hugs to you... And your daughters...

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  7. (((((((Catherine)))))))

    You are so eloquent! xoxo

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  8. Big hugs to you! Thank you for sharing so beautifully.

    It saddens but comforts me to know that when I cry I am not alone.

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  9. i remember the first day that i didn't cry at all. it felt so weird and so soon. :(

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  10. i dont even wear makeup anymore..

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  11. I'm a slow learner too, learning again and again and again that he is gone for good and that this ache is forever. Wish we were learning different lessons together.

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  12. Catherine,

    I've missed you. I've been slow on commenting lately, but I've been thinking much about you and wishing you well.

    I think waterproof mascara would just become one more way to protect society from your pain. Keep the real stuff. :)

    Peace, my friend.

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  13. I am just as a slow a learner, then! I do stuff all the time like this. To punish myself? To remember? To let people know?
    Sending light to you, my friend.

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  14. I like to remind myself too and I feel no shame in that. Sometimes that leads to tears but not always.

    I think I am a slow learner but, for me, the problem is that I can't work out what I should be learning. If it boils down to learning to forget, then there is a lesson I can never grasp.

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  15. I'm laughing, but it's really not funny. But I so get it. Me too.

    It's amazing how much the presence - or absence - of waterproof mascara can mean. Especially given the absence - or presence - of tears.

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  16. sigh.... i've stained all of my pillows with mascara from crying myself to sleep.... still haven't leaned either.
    XO

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  17. I'm not sure if I'm slow, or simply refusing to learn.
    Big ((hugs)) to you.

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