Family Matters

This is going to be a frustrating post because for the first time in my blog's history I am going to use it as I originally meant it to be, as a personal diary. The awkward thing about it is that you, the reader, will have no idea what I am talking about because I am not at liberty to discuss details. I'm protecting identities here that could or could not at a later point in time become known.
Basically, something really really awful happened this past week in my family and it's causing a huge upheaval and a lot of sorrow. No one has died or is physically ill. It's just an unthinkable and totally unexpected situation which most people believe could never happen to them.
I've basically sat here at home all day in shock, trying to make sense of it all and getting in contact with the specific family member(s) that it involves. I don't know what to say or do, how to offer support or comfort, or how to rationalize the circumstances, and I am sure that no one else does either. It's not like we won't get over this, but for the moment our lives and potentially some others are going to be affected. I know this is brief and probably not even conveying how disturbed I am, but this is one place I knew I could have a little vent even though I cannot detail what is going on. I hope you'll understand that in this situation, it's not my right to give an account, but I am equally affected and distraught.



Invictus

OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~William Ernest Henley~