Two Losses, Three Lessons Learned

In February 2015 my father died. In March 2015 I was informed that my job was being eliminated. I was in a fog for a good portion of the remainder of the year.

Now, a year later, I’m able to articulate some lessons I’ve learned as I’ve struggled to make sense of what happened. I share here the three I consider to be the most significant.

1. The loss of a family member is a tragedy, no matter when or how. Yet each person will respond differently, and no one way is right or wrong. In other words, I can’t expect others to honor the way I grieve. I need to be grateful if they do, and accept it if they don’t.

2. Life goes on when you’re grieving. That’s the way it is. That doesn’t lessen the grief nor the need to get through it in your own way and time. 

3. I am mortal. I will run out of time. Unless I pursue with alacrity what is in my heart and what I know intuitively, I will have regrets. And that  will be a tragedy. 

I’m feeling better, and at the same time I’m a different person than I was at this time last year because of such realizations. I move forward with them foremost in my thoughts as I seek new personal and professional opportunities.