英文原文

人生的极致，往往就是云淡风轻， 淡泊悠闲 。可是，那是望尽千帆看破红尘之后的人，才会想得到的。年轻的时候，往往嫌人生 太平淡 ， 生活 太简单，时时盼望着的，是一场轰轰烈烈的人生。其实任何东西都不能指望它轰轰烈烈，因为轰轰烈烈过后，就是一场灰烬。

I believe in grief. Almost every day, when I walk into the hospital where I work as a nurse practitioner, I hear crying, moaning or wailing: A young woman has miscarried; an elderly widower is holding his wife’s belongings; a mother stands guard over her badly burned child.

Once I would have rushed to comfort these people. Uncomfortable myself with their grief, I’d want to ease their sadness with my cheer and consolation. I’d hug a patient and tell her to “try to get pregnant next month.” I would reassure the widower, telling him, “Your wife had a long life.” I’d enter the burned child’s room in intensive care with a smile rather than encouraging the mother to weep in my arms.

When my own mother died I was terrified, confused about how I was expected to act. Was I allowed to be the grieving daughter, or should I be the competent, grief-denying professional? I held my mother’s wrist, counting her pulse as it slowed. After her last breath, I rang for the nurse. Heart pounding, I waved good-bye to my mother, her gray hair bright against the sheets, and said, “Bye Mom,” in the cheery voice I’d practiced all my life. I didn’t know then that I could have climbed into bed and held her; that I should have wailed when she was gone.

It wasn’t until I had stayed with many dying patients and, finally, with my dying father, that I allowed myself to grieve — for my parents, for those lost patients, for all their loved ones who, as I once did, held back their tears. At my father’s death I cried like a child, not caring that I made the gulping noises of unrestrained mourning. Now, years later, I know that it is both necessary and human for us to wallow, each in our own way, in grief.

I no longer comfort others with false cheer. In the hospital, where my encounters with patients are ever more distanced by sterile gloves, computer protocols, and the pressures of time, one way I can still be present is during their moments of grief. I don’t encourage anyone to move on, to replace, to remarry, or put the photos or the memories away. Grief must be given its time.

I believe that both the caregivers and the cared-for should be free to scream and cry and fall to the floor — if not actually, then at least in the heart. I believe that grief, fully expressed, will change over time into something less overpowering, even granting us a new understanding, a kind of double vision that comprehends both the beauty and fragility of life at the same time.

When I grieve, when I stand by others as they grieve, even in the midst of seemingly unbearable sorrow, grief becomes a way to honor life — a way to cling to every fleeting, precious moment of joy.”

重点词汇

1.practitioner 从业者

He is a medical practitioner.
他是一位开业医生。

The dictionary is mainly for civil aviation practitioner, aviation majored students and Aviation enthusiasts.
词典主要面向民航从业人员、航空专业学员以及航空爱好者。

2.wail vi. 哀号；悲叹

We were wailing but nobody had a tape machine.
我们演奏得淋漓尽致，可惜没有人带录音机。

I would still wail painfully.
我还是会痛苦嚎哭。

3.consolation 使感到安慰的人（或事）；安慰；慰藉

They use music as a consolation or an escape.
他们把音乐当成一种安慰或一种逃避。

After her husband died she had only the dog for consolation.
丈夫死后，她只有一条狗伴她左右，给她带来慰藉。

4. cheery 高兴的；兴高采烈的

I am a careful and cheery maturity female.
我是一个既严谨又活泼的成熟女性。

5.unrestrained 无节制的；放纵的；不加制约的

I envy my brother, he is so unrestrained.
我羡慕弟弟，他是那么的无拘无束。

6.overpowering 强烈的；极强大的；坚强的

See, coffee is so overpowering that it can dominate even the strongest of flavorings.
喏，咖啡的气味太浓烈了，甚至都能盖住味道最重的调味品。