Phantom Organs...

December 12th, 2008

Loss has been one of the most intriguing and controversial topics discussed and written about in details and in numerous contexts and fields of expertise. It has been researched by those looking for some kind of answer, any answer, on how to fight this painful and recurring symptom that each of us will eventually feel at one point or another.

Sometimes, we try to find simple explanations for the sorrow we feel after loss. We search deep inside of us and in those around us to find ways to overcome our small losses and defeats. At others times though, things are not that simple that it’s way too complicated for us to understand what we feel after a great loss. It is here where the similarity between loss and the scientific term “phantom limbs” comes in play.

“A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb (even an organ, like the appendix) is still attached to the body and is moving appropriately with other body parts.”

Loss, great loss, can be easily related to such a definition:

When we lose someone who was really close to us, to life or to time, somewhere deep inside this loss remains to linger on if not throughout our lives then at least for a significant amount of time. Their presence might feel real at some times and their essence still alive. Although we do know they are gone, we still feel their phantom existence in almost everything we do and everywhere we go.

To take this discussion a step further, let’s assume that love is in our “physical organ”: the heart. Losing love is then equal to losing our heart. Therefore, we do live on to breathe and grow and experience life yet without the actual existence of the amputated heart!

To conclude, I urge you to always remember, “Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”