Life can change in an instant when you lose someone you love. Whether they’ve graced this earth for 24 or 84 years is irrelevant when grief has you in its ugly clutches. It’s the rawest form of human emotion possible and sadly, unless you chose to shut yourself off from life and never get close to anyone one, one day this dreaded feeling will be knocking on your life’s door.

It was a marvel then to hear how author of “Broken Open”, Elizabeth Lesser, explained the concept of grief in an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. “Grief is an expression that you loved well,” she revealed, with a quiet eloquence and firm belief in her words. For someone like me, who possesses an anxiety inducing ever-present fear of losing those I adore, this was somewhat of a wonder to behold. I’d never framed grief in that light before… How lucky are we to have had someone to share our life that we loved so truly, madly, deeply, where memories were made that can live on forever in your heart. No, it will never be the same without them in our life, but at least in our grief we can be proud of the fact we loved hard.