Loss and Resilience

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In my May 7, 2014 blog, I Said Goodbye to My Good Boy, I shared a very personal story, one you are likely to relate to.

It is about loss and resiliency.

Loss and resiliency have been a theme for me the last two months as I have gone through an experience I feared for years: the end of life for one of my beloved dogs.

You may be afraid that my story will be a sad one to read. But don't be! It is so much more than that. I made a choice not to let this loss devastate me the way so many other losses in my past had done. And I taught myself what to do differently this time. And it worked!

As the weeks pass, I recognize even more acutely how important choosing and creating our own resilience, and talking about it with each other, is to good Self Care.

I write to you as a more whole, grateful and enriched person because of this experience.  

Yes, I shed some tears when I wrote that blog. And, yes, I still miss my dog many times each day.

Yet, for the first time, this is a loss that does not hurt. By creating resilience for myself, I have a stable platform of well-being on which this loss tenderly rests. And, perhaps strangely, that is a joy.

.The richest experiences in life are often the ones in which we hold seemingly opposite realities in one embrace.     

Loss and joy, hurt and healing, fear and freedom: We may think that they are one or the other, that they are in opposition. But I found that when I embraced them together for the purpose of my greater well-being, I gained far more than I lost. 

In that blog I began to tell you how I was able to expand my embrace. In future blogs I will share more.

As we all face challenges, losses and upheavals, this skill to expand our embrace for the purpose of our greater well-being is a precious skill.

(If you missed I Said Goodbye to My Good Boy, I encourage you to CLICK HERE and read it now.)