Healing After Loss

JUNE 5

Lying awake at dawn, I remember them,

With a love that is almost joy I remember them:

Lost, and all mine, all mine, forever.

—JOHN HALL WHEELOCK

It is a bittersweet joy, but real nonetheless—the way our lost
loves are forever in our hearts and minds. They are, in fact,
constant to our consciousness in a way they couldn’t be
when they were alive, because then we depended on their
comings and goings—the highs and lows of their being with
us, the vagaries of presence and convenience.
But now we can summon the memories of them at will,
and even when we’re not consciously thinking of them, they
seem almost as integral to our being as our skin, or as a
comfortable robe we wrap ourselves in at the end of a busy
and tiring day. A loved one—a memory to be with, a quiet
companion.
It is, again, not what we would have chosen. But it is its
own blessing.

I will relax into the memory and spiritual presence of my loved
one, and feel at peace.