Sabbatical Series: Lessons Learned Through Loss

It has always been true that the world has a way of catching us off guard. Many of us like to think we have our life in control. Especially if we were fortunate enough to be born into a comfortable middle-class family, we have been taught to work hard and life will reward you. Pestilence, natural disasters, and war intervene, toppling our achievements.

In the midst of what is happening, we all need hope! Sharing words of hope and encouragement is going to be my focus as I take a sabbatical from new posts for a short while and reach back to republish some of my prior writings.

Lessons Learned Through Loss

If there’s one good which may come out of these terrible times of COVID-19, perhaps it is the lessons we have learned about appreciating more those parts of our lives which were snatched away from us. As workers and students, we probably complained at some point about the job we had to go to or the classes we were expected to attend. Yet now we look back with longing.

One of my family members who is a teacher related to me this week how her university students who were coming back into the physical facility seemed especially engaged in participating in class discussion.

Another family member in the early days of the pandemic told me her colleagues expressed eagerness to attend ZOOM meetings as they missed not being able to come to work.

A young granddaughter who recently was able to play with and have over-night a friend who had moved away, said to me, ”I wish I could just have that day with DeeDee over and over again” (name changed). I assured her that she could play that vision in her thoughts as often as she wanted. And that someday, she and DeeDee would have another play date.

***There will be Another Fun Day . . .***

I have two climbing rose bushes which have produced exceptionally deep crimson blooms in abundance this year, true not in small part to my watering them faithfully on those scorchingly hot summer days. They also have an exquisite fragrance. From time to time when my children and grandchildren come to visit me on the back patio, as they are leaving, I say, “Don’t forget to smell the roses!” So, let’s all remember those beautiful roses we saw and smelled in the past, those we are enjoying now, and those which will surely bloom in our future days!