You tell him. Strange night. The blankness. The way you keep reaching for the shape of what you were inside and finding it gone.

Nathan says: That's exactly right. You've been organized around the denial for almost three weeks. Your nervous system built a structure around it. It needs time to find a different shape.

You ask how long.

He says: Different for everyone. Few days usually. Sometimes a week.

You tell him: it feels like loss.

He says: I know. It isn't. It's transition. No session this week. Just ordinary time. Check in tomorrow morning.

You spend the day doing ordinary things. Gym. Cooking. Sleeping through the night for the first time in days. The blankness is still present Saturday morning but it has a different quality. Less like absence and more like open space.

The Morning After