Grief

When I write about grief in all of my blog postings, I will use the term “Loved One” for simplicity sake. 

However, "Loved One" includes all of the following, and any other loss or change that causes you to feel pain and sadness.

1.       Obvious:  the loss of:

a.       a special person through death, a break-up, etc. 
       (spouse, partner, child, parent, close friend) 

b.       a pet companion,

 c.       your job (whether you enjoyed it or not),

d.       your home;

2.       Not so obvious:  the loss of:

a.        a dream or goal,

b.       a colleague at work, play, or school,

c.        our health or the health of a Loved One,

d.       our comfortable and familiar daily routine;

3.       Ambiguous – when we don’t feel like celebrating, but aren’t sure if we’re “entitled” to grieve.  For example:

a.        we are alive but permanently injured,

 b.       a loved one is missing but there’s cause for hope,

c.        the ‘empty-nest’ syndrome,

d.       the death of a “less than loved one.”