I’d say on this topic I counteract my cynical habits in replacement of compassion and a deeper understanding. To lose is to learn and the impact of loss is far past from what anyone seems to be able to clearly accept initially. Sure some may interpret loss or losing to that of the board game comparison of a toddler screaming with every whooping emotion that tiny body has bottled up for just the occasion of defeat, but there is a greater loss I have in mind today. The loss of a love, a companion, a friend, a lover, a soul that has touched your own, and the blank haze that takes the place of the smile and the warmth that once stood. Bearing witness to loss in life from a young age as I am sure many have; death, collapse of the life you knew, the destruction of families, defacing the person you once were, I could list a Beatles A-Z weekend of tragedies I have come in contact with. So here in comes the perspective change that occurs with every loss, the anguish of no longer having that connection with what once was. In confession I have had perspective change recently from the passing of a few souls I once knew and it made me wonder as I have many times before, what would I do, how would I respond, am I taking it all for granted as the daily life usually insists we do? Well the frank answer to those questions is YES, it’s habit to take for granted, to abuse the privilege, to feel the hand of the one you love in yours. Here in enter life, this atmosphere we’re all lolling around in telling ourselves I won’t forget this feeling or the lessons I have learned, but we do and today I am not going to blame the stigma for what it is. Time masters us and every loss comes with a gain even if the loss may feel greater than any achievement you have conquered, the world may weigh on your shoulders painting you as the modern day Atlas. We are all going through a loss of some sort, but I will give the pause of life as it was to those of whom have lost that soul that has melted into a part of their own. To those losses that came upon our lives so sudden and so unexpectedly, they are on their own plain in a field of sleepless what ifs and shocked to light grief. There are no words, just time. So this time the wisdom hit me instead of seeking it out, I’ll challenge myself as I challenge all of you to not take for granted but take account of what is staring back at you. Here today gone tomorrow, and I am here and today is all it will ever be so tomorrow I’ll miss what I had and love what I have. The memories will fade as time takes the pain, but until then I will remember; all my loving. -SM
–To those we have lost even it was ourselves
