love and loss

Sometimes in life you experience a loss that shakes the very ground beneath your feet, you feel like you are experiencing an alternate universe, your body numbs, your vision dims and you can't wrap your mind around it...

What I have learned in life is that love makes us all vulnerable. Loving a friend, a relative or even a partner is a risk because equally yoked with love is the risk of loss. A loss of life or a loss of reality or perspective.

Loss is never easy. There is never an easy way to cope, to move on, to find balance. It takes time, its a journey full of every emotion that exists, and more often than not those emotions come like a rollercoaster, sudden and unpredictable. At times it feels like you're climbing Mount Everest or walking the Sahara desert, heated, dizzy and confused. Other times it feels like a warm breezy day, peaceful and calm.

As hard as it is however, loss reminds us of how deep and real the love is. It let's us understand how beautiful and affecting those relationships are in our lives. Love is an ability to open yourself up; to share your innermost thoughts, ideas, goals and dreams. To learn how to explore, experience life, LIVE!! To experience selflessness, joy, beauty. To have someone witness your daily feats, milestones.. your life's legacy.

I have to admit that I have been blessed in life to have rarely experienced loss. However when I stop to think of loss, I think of it as part of my life's journey. I think of how it brought with it a love that at its best awakened me and at its worst taught me about myself; a love that served to strengthen me when I needed strength, humble me when I needed humbling, and lift me up when I needed to be lifted.

Loss comes in different shapes, color and sizes and there is never a way to sum up loss as "one size fits all". I would never claim to tell someone how to grieve loss. What I will say is that life is meant to be lived -- so live!!... Allow yourself to feel the depths of emotions that come with loss, but make steps to live and feel the richness that is LOVE once again!!!