heavy hearted

Do you ever find yourself encountering the same thing multiple times in a short period of time? Sometimes it’s as simple as a word you’ve never heard, or sometimes it’s more complicated, like a common theme.

Well, the last three or four days I have encountered at least three profound stories of loss. The first one I found via Love & Olive Oil, and it was the story of Jennie who suddenly lost her husband.

Then on Mackin Ink (one of my faves) Karey wrote about a similar thing, but this time it was about someone who had lost a child.

And then on Sunday I heard about a friend of a friend who was killed in Afghanistan. He was my age and went to a neighboring high school. My MOH wrote about him on her blog, as well as the other losses she had experienced in her life.

Stories like these always have a big effect on me. It takes me a while to shake the feeling of sadness. And in these cases, I have not been close to the person who was lost. I have so much respect for people who lose people that are close to them. I imagine that it would be such a struggle to keep going.

But I think my MOH’s post was spot on: the only way to get over this kind of sadness is to look at the what you can learn from those that have been lost. And in my case, what you can learn from those who are handling loss at such close range.

Thanks for listening, friends. I always feel better after putting things out there to you.