Good Grief!
Not too long ago we lost our precious cat, Maisie. She was young; it was sudden and unexpected. One morning last week as I was heading to work, I was contemplating the meaning of the word grief. What is it? What does it mean to grieve? Even over just the last few years, I've grieved many times over, too many that I've just lost count. Grief doesn't just come after some sort of loss, but it comes in the midst of a big change - both good and bad. It results in big feelings, and this is the first time that I've been able to openly grieve in front of my sons - but this time we are all grieving over the same thing, each of us in different ways. It has been a valuable teaching moment to say the least. We've seen denial, anger, bargaining, depression, tears, irritability ... we've been walking through it all choosing to keep our hearts open and soft in the middle of the pain. Most people think of grief as a deep penetrating agony pain after loss, particularly death. I...