這篇文章讓人感覺淡淡的悲傷，但是久久回味~~

不知為啥，心裡會覺得很堵~

http://forum.putclub.com/viewthread.php?tid=148782&extra=page%3D1



This I Believe is independently produced by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick. Our new book This I Believe Volume 2 collecting 75 essays from the series is now available from the NPR shop and from npr.org/thisibelieve.



I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.

This I believe.



Our This I Believe essay today comes from Michael Newland of Santa Rosa California. Newland is an archaeologist. He says that in his work he discovers the way different cultures face death. He’s also discovered how to face it in his own life. Here is our series curator, independent producer Jay Allison.



Michael Newland says that in most cultures to grieve for someone is to honor him and it’s in our society where honor is important, particularly among men. It has become disconnected from grieving. This essay he says is a way to honor his late son. Here is Michael Newland with his essay for this I believe.



I believe that grieving is good for you. As a culture I feel we’ve forgotten how to grieve. And last year, I had the opportunity to remember. My wife was 7 months pregnant when her blood pressure spite. Her liver started to shut down. So the doctors performed a Cesarean and our son was delivered to save both of their lives. The first time I saw my son, he was in an incubator with nurses clearing his airways. He looked at me, like a dolphin surfacing to look at a fisherman and re-submerged when the team took him away to stabilize him. He was the smallest, most fragile baby I'd ever seen. Over the next two weeks, my wife's health stabilized. My son's condition, however, deteriorated. The lungs of premature babies are as delicate and tenuous as a spider web, and they shred at the slightest pressure. I wanted to put him inside my chest and give him my lungs to breathe with. We went from holding him, to putting a hand on his head, to, at the end, with all the tubes and wires, only being able to lay one finger on the back of his hand. His lungs failed, and we had to let him go.



We never heard him cry. My wife and I, first time parents, held him as he died, and we bathed him, washed his hair and dressed him before he was cremated. In my mind, I can see an angel close her hand around my son like he was a gold coin and slip him into her pocket. As each day passes, you close your eyes and let your grief slide through your fingers. One rough, cold link after another, until your loss set deep inside you. It’s a give and take between you and your grief, a tension that rolls your emotions back and forth. And at first you are certain that your life is going to capsize and you were drown. Eventually, the grief will ground you and give you stability in trouble times. I am a better husband, a better father and a better man from my loss. I'm kinder, more empathetic and have different priorities. Our marriage was reforged. The impurity’s burned out of the relationship by the furnace of our son’s death. To be with your child nearly every minute of his life is a gift few parents get, and my son died in the arms of people who loved him.



Ten months ago, my wife gave birth to our healthy daughter, and I am filled with a joy made greater by the loss of my son, because I know now what we have. The angel has extended her open hand to me. When my daughter turned to look at me for the first time, I picked her up and held her with everything I had.



Michael Newland with this essay for This I Believe. Newland wrote this essay as a part of a hospice grief group. He wanted to share with others particularly other men who have lost someone they honored. As always we invite you to submit an essay of your own to our series at npr.org/thisibelieve. You’ll find all the information. For This I Believe, I’m Jay Allison.



Jay Allison is coeditor with Dan Gediman, John Gregory and Viki Merrick of the new book This I Believe Volume 2, more personal philosophies of remarkable men and women.

Support for This I Believe, comes from potential retirement.