When we go through extreme pain - death or heartbreak, there's a two second void when we wake up between sleep and consciousness that feels like pure bliss. In that darkness, pain doesn't exist. We have no idea who we are, what we've experienced. Then we remember.
Impact.
It hits like a car collision, the energy of the crash forcing its way through every capillary in the body until the pain lands in our consciousness. Pain. Intolerable pain. There is no gift in this moment. Nothing to soften into. No advice to receive. The only way out is through.