WE DON'T "MOVE ON" FROM GRIEF - WE MOVE FORWARD WITH IT

I didn't "get it" either until "it" happened to me.

I have a friend whose daughter died 11 years ago ... and she still gets very emotional when she talks about her daughter. While it never made me uncomfortable when she talked and cried - I admit, I didn't "get it". I felt that a decade of mourning was waaaaaay too long to feel such immense sadness. I never wanted to shut her up or shut her down ... I just wanted her not to be so sad anymore.

Now; I "get it".

I may not lose it every time I think or speak about Bob 10 years down the road, BUT I KNOW that I will always feel my throat close, my breath get shallow, and my heart start racing when I experience A.G.A.I.N. that sudden loss of Bob in my life as I move forward in life here on Earth.

I do know that Bob IS in Heaven. I do know that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord": Bob and I are Christians. Death doesn't frighten us or hold us captive. BUT, I also know that I miss his presence here on Earth. I know that while Bob is walking the streets of gold up yonder in that celestial city beyond the clouds ... he is no longer present with me, here on earth, where I walk the blacktopped home streets alone.

I KNOW now what most people don't - including Christians - who have not or are not yet "getting it". It is not yet a personal experience for them: they yet cannot understand.

It is OKAY to {know} where your loved one is, and STILL MISS them with a gut-wrenching and heartbreaking emotional tug.

Those of us who bravely soldier on in the unraveling of the life we knew don't "move on" or "get over it" - we move forward WITH "it".

I didn't "get it" either until "it" happened to me ...