A Deeper Look

As always, there’s more to the story. Yesterday’s dip into grief showed me how close it lies to the surface of other people’s lives. I lost a loved one who was loved by others, in ways big and small. Their loss is no less grievous than mine. A heartache is a heartache no matter how it comes to be. It is easy to forget, as I go about the business of healing, that my suffering might be carried by others. Of course, it also means it is not my burden to carry alone, and that helps.

It’s also obvious, from a larger perspective and especially as we age, that grief is probably a fairly constant theme in the lives of most people. As I sat yesterday in a room full of friends listening to music, I thought it highly likely that almost everyone there had lost someone they held near and dear. A family member, a friend, a lover. The scythe of the grim reaper never dulls. And as people like to joke, no one gets out alive.

Yet still we gathered to laugh and smile and raise a toast while being sung to, enjoying the day, the wind in our face, the sun on our skin. Celebrating being alive. Being with our friends. Creating memories. After all, what we are today is what we were yesterday, whatever it was we lived through. We made it. We’re here. Carrying on. Showing any youngster who cares to look how you do it, and maybe even showing ourselves.