Loss

Anyone who passes over from our little community is a loss from each of us; a space is left where they were. When a young person passes the loss is keenest, and the space goes forward into time.

It defies belief for a bit, when a young person leaves us over trivial things, a moment’s misjudgment. Such a rare treasure is taken for transient causes, for things that in normal life would have passed, but in this strange world, the consequences are too huge to take in. We might want to deal with the world, to bargain against the loss. We might get angry and rage, at God, and the world, and against all such stupid events which mean so little but cost so much.

At some point, we have to realize that each person lives his or her own life. Our stories are personal and immutable. If the story is short, we are left with no choice but to accept that short, important story for what it is, and return, without judgment or rage, to writing our own life, to stay busy filling our own space in the community.

Our thoughts go out to the families of those recently taken from us, and to their friends who, too young, have to accept the inevitable, personal and yet unremarkable fact of mortality. Let’s value each other that much more, and cherish endlessly our children that remain.