Grief

Grief is a funny thing...everyone feels it differently and as much as we want to say "I get it" to another person - we really don't. Sure, most of us understand the steps of grief, the emotions of grief...the echo of grief, but we just can't walk in anyone else's shoes completely because we can't exchange their thoughts and their heart for ours.

Grief has many levels...there is the kind that takes your breath away and changes your life in a moment...death, terminal illness, but there is also the smaller griefs. The one's you will, most certainly, get through, but they still hurt. Saying goodbye can, at times, be like this for me. Maybe it is because I am cognizant that when you leave a place you can never go back and rearrange the players in the picture quite the same - you can only savor the moments played.

I have had to say goodbye a lot. Scott and I met overseas and have lived in 5 states since we have been married and moved some 25+ odd times. We have really been blessed to make friends wherever we go and we are just people who connect at a deep level with people. The upside is the depth of relationship, but the downside is saying goodbye.

I have learned to honor those times of change by recognizing that I can feel both grief and excitement all at the same time and to just give myself permission to feel the loss as deep as possible. It seems like it makes it easier to move into another type of emotions. Anticipation.