Thursday, March 8, 2012

Thoughts on Losing

The word "losing" generally has a bad connotation.  If someone were to say to you "did you lose?" or  "are you losing?" my mind usually goes to something sad or upsetting.

You can LOSE a game.
You can LOSE your keys.
You can LOSE a friend.
And the worst kind, you can LOSE someone you love as they pass on.

March 4th commemorated one year since we LOST our Aaron.  I suppose I will never forget that day or where I was or what was said but it all had to do with LOSING and I hate that kind of LOSING.

Aaron hated LOSING.  He really hated it and I'll bet it has broken his heart to watch his family over this past year try to cope with the thing he hated the very most: LOSING.

Two days before the anniversary of Aaron's death, I got word that we had LOST again.  Another dear friend was gone.  If you have ever seen shows at the Hale Center Theatres in Utah you've probably seen him.  Bradford LOST his young wife to brain cancer just two years before we LOST him.  He raised his two children and brought joy and light to everyone he met.  I remember sitting across the table from him in the Saddle Rock Family Saloon, just weeks after LOSING his sweet Heather, and discussing LOSS.  He is a pro at LOSING and still coming out on top.  He will be greatly missed.

So, as I reflect upon this year I'm grateful for the chances that LOSS have given me to reflect and alter my way of life.  Read those letters to Aaron here, here, or here.

I stole this happy picture from Aaron's sister.  There was no LOSING going on before, during, or after this picture.  Just look at those smiles!



ON THE OTHER HAND

You can LOSE weight...and that's the best feeling in the world.
You can LOSE yourself in a good book...and who doesn't want that?!
You can LOSE negative desires.

I like that kind of losing.

2 comments:

  1. It really is all about learning and progressing and letting each experience enhance your perception of the world, of your life, and what your purpose is. Amazing how detached we can be from our biological lives, and how these natural events come so unexpectedly. They shake you and shape you, it can be the most profound influence one person can have on another. My favorite passage to keep in mind on the topic of loss and death is section 6 of Whitman's Song of Myself. It ends in this passage, "All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, And to die is different from what any one supposed, and luckier." Share your love, I'll send mine out too.

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