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I do not believe in coincidences.
To have received a suggested theme from Thrive Global on the topic of grief as it corresponds to what would have been my Mum’s 65th Birthday is quite something.
Anniversaries always conjure up feelings of nostalgia — remembering what once was as compared to what now is and the reasons for why that is, can often be quite polarizing.
Who cannot relate to or identify with what it means to be touched by grief? We have all known what it is to miss people, places, relationships, pets, jobs, as well as particular time frames within our lives.
I believe life is forever a journey of healing, relinquishing while simultaneously embracing. I believe grief and loss represents and is indicative of existing dual realities — the past and the present matched with the unknown, otherwise referred to as the future.
We are shaped and guided by the culmination of all of our experiences, recollections, and memory-making. People change us, experiences expand us, and life itself for all it entails and embodies; enriches us.
We cannot fully appreciate or comprehend joy and happiness without also having been touched by grief and sorrow. We cannot truly understand wholeness and completeness without also having tasted emptiness and isolation.
We can relish in what it feels and what it means to have genuine connections when we are able to contrast those with the times we have felt disconnection from both ourselves and from others.
Life is forever a journey of adaptation. We know what it means to grow together and to grow apart. Being in the same environment can conjure up simultaneous reactions — airports for example signify both arrivals and departures, each holding their own unique experience for each individual person.
Turning the page on a new calendar year can represent hope and relief while also representing dread and angst.
We all go through periods in our lives where we want to press both the reset and the fast forward button on time, events, memories and milestones — wanting to re-live or to recapture a moment just once more or conversely, wishing something would hurry up and run its course.
Grief can be symbolically wrapped up in missing parts of our own identities. Saying hello or yes to something can oftentimes mean saying goodbye or no to something or someone else. Life brings about universal exchanges all the time — invaluable learned life lessons at the cost of initial pain and hardship.
We downgrade and upgrade depending on existing circumstances as we are all provided a plethora of choices every single day as to whether we stand still, go backwards or take that leap of faith in moving forward.
Life is a smorgasbord of both grief and joy. We would all very much appreciate receiving an occasional second helping of the yummy stuff, as opposed to the huge heaping of sadness and loss over-flowing our plates, wondering how on earth we will ever be able to stomach and digest the stinging taste.
With all of my own life experiences surrounding grief and loss, I am very fortunate and grateful for not only my fortitude and resiliency to triumph the hardships — I am immensely appreciative for my belief and outlook on there being no endings — only beginnings.
Love and Gratitude to all ~