Peace
Panic. Despair. And...Peace. It's strange the feelings one experiences in the most dire of situations. There's no rational explanation for the feelings that overcome a person in the most nerve-wracking of times. When death stares you in the eye, instead of fear, you feel oddly at peace. It settles over you softly and all feelings are numbed but the feelings of tranquility and resignation. It may be because you realize that it's futile to fight anymore but it also might be that you finally understand that life, sooner or later, will always end. We all have a time and, eventually, it will come. Today, tomorrow, or many years down the road, it will all come to a stopping point whether we are prepared or not. When a tornado scythes across the open ground toward you, when no one is near but your mother, you feel three things. First, panic. There's the rush to get away as fast as possible. Rational thought is discarded along with all other reasonable things. There's screaming and fear. Frantic yells of "Help!" and "Hurry!" that do nothing to help the situation. Then the tears come. A torrent of saltwater streaming down your face. And panic, becomes despair. The thought of death finally crosses your mind and you give in and decide that there's no point to continue. The despair sends tremors through you and your head drops. The tears spill down and cling to the grass like the morning dew. You fall to your knees and sit with your head in your hands. The wracking sobs shake your body and you feel an emptiness deep down. A pain that cannot be numbed by morphine, a hollowness that will be remembered by you until your dying days. Then the tears slow then cease completely. The pain starts to fade, then what was despair, morphs into an inexplicable peace. And I don't mean the artificial peace that we feel when everything is going well and there's Beethoven playing in the background. I'm talking about the genuine peace of when a soul is finally laid to rest. It fills your heart to the brim with wonderful serenity and the tornado mentally ceases to exist. Nothing can penetrate this shell. There is a barrier between you and the world that cannot be crossed. The prayers and tears are over. The peace settles, you have no fears, you have no worries, only peace. Only peace.