Dedicated to all of you who have lost a loved one. Unless you’ve been in that unfortunate situation, you cannot imagine the emotional ups-and-downs that challenge you and change you forever.

Grief comes out of nowhere, like a freight train unpredictably barreling down unused tracks. You can hear the whistle getting louder and louder and see the scorching light, but you can’t get out of its way. It feels as though you will be crushed by it yet there’s no escape.

You try to run, unable to move while it makes its way toward you at uncontrolled speeds. It makes you angry that it can come whenever it chooses…all you can do is grab a sidecar, ride along, and try not to analyze why it has chosen today to run you down. You ride it for hours, sometimes days, as it speeds toward the next station called Living, Loving & Grieving.

At the station of Living, Loving & Grieving you disembark and slowly move out of the fog, into each day, acutely aware of every breath you take, every tree in bloom, every bit of kindness that makes being in the now so important.

Eventually, life returns to “normal” and all you hear is the occasional distant whistle of that freight train, reminding you that it will come again, maybe less often and with less power, but it will come again. All you can do is go with it, process whatever feelings you try to fight, and remind yourself that there is happiness, love, and grace around the next bend.