"The risk of love is loss, and the price of loss is grief. But the pain of grief is only a shadow when compared with the pain of never risking love." Hilary Stanton Zunin
We have to deal with a death at some point in our lives. We don't want to, and we don't expect to, but we get to deal with it anyway. Death is hard to deal with, even when you're expecting it. It's harder when it's a surprise. You feel like you've been blindsided, unprepared, no chance to get your defenses up. No cocoon of armor to wrap yourself in, to be safe from your feelings. So all you can do is let the feelings wash over you, and FEEL them.
It's not very comfortable. And it's even worse when you realize that you're resenting the person who died for springing this on you so suddenly. Slowly the waves of emotion slow down and what's left is the grief and loss. And as you get centered in that, perhaps the wisdom in our quote comes to mind. When you love, you risk loss. So how can we avoid that? By not loving?
We know that's not the right answer. All we can do is accept that grief is a part of life. If we love and are loved we'll have great joy and great grief. The good news is that grief passes, but love endures. We can be grateful for that.
(Courtesy Wes Hooper)
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