Words to Ponder Over: Our Lives Are Filled With "Little Deaths"

Over at Wounded Birds Ministry, there is an insightful article, "Grieving the Little Deaths in Our Lives".  Money quote:

"Commonly, when we think of grief, we think about death: the death of a spouse, a family member, or a close friend. These are big, profound losses that alter the shape of our reality and cause us to alter our sense of identity in some way.

What we miss in this simplistic definition are all the little deaths we experience in our lives. Every time we hit a change in our life, we experience a little death. In my story, it was the death of my team that upset me: we would have layoffs, people would quit – it would all happen quickly, and outside my control.

We live a lot of little deaths in our lives. When we marry, we experience the death of our single-life. When we become parents, our childless existences depart from us. Relationships die, lives change.

As a society, we don’t acknowledge these little deaths enough."

After reading this, I realize that we deal with all kinds of deaths and losses throughout our lives: Co-workers quit or get fired.  Our workplaces go out of business.   Friends move away, or we lose touch.  Favorite stores and restaurants close.  Hopefully when we have to deal with these "little deaths" in our lives, we can seek out and find new people, places, and things to take their place.  Looking ahead is what we need to focus on, instead of looking behind with regret.  As a certain B-rated actor from a B-rated movie once stated: "We should all be interested in the future, because that is where you and I are going to be spending the rest of our lives."