Loss

The start of 2008 has been interesting for me. I was just thinking about the past month and all the events that have taken place in the lives of the people around me. Lots of grief and loss. What should be a new beginning has been an ending for many of them. Our neighbor lost her husband, the one she had been with for over 60 years. A friend lost her brother who was only 32 and in the prime of his life. My SIL lost her grandfather. My FIL lost his aunt. Today I will attend a funeral where a friend has lost her 16 year old son to the tragedy of suicide. All of this has taken place in the last few weeks. It is hard to fathom let alone know what to say. I know grandparents grow old and leave us. That is life but it does not make it any easier, especially when they love and have been our hero since we were born. We may even live to see our spouse pass on before us. I think of my neighbor and the emptiness she must feel without her best friend next to her. My heart breaks for my friend that lost her son. I can't even imagine and when I try to I am so overcome with emotion that I can barely breathe. I have asked God what all of this means and I keep getting the same answer....it gives me empathy. I feel the pain of others, I try to understand what it must be like. As long as I have empathy I am human. When we become so calloused that these losses do not even stop us in our tracks, they do not interrupt our schedules, or cause us to ponder the wonder of life, that is when we are so hardened that we are almost no longer human. God felt our pain, He sent His Son to earth to walk in our shoes. He became human. I pray that I will always feel the pain of others even when I don't want to. This is what God wants for me. So to those that I love that have lost, I am sorry. To those that read this and are moved, well, I am not sorry, it means you are human.