While we do offer condolences to their families and loved ones for their personal loss, we are mourning a part of our lives where that person will live on.
First of all, death is a part of life, and regardless of the circumstances of their deaths, they all left this planet too soon.
Whenever anyone that we love, be it a celebrity or a close loved one, passes – it is always too soon. Few are lucky to know in advance that their life will be cut short, and by “lucky”, I imply that they and their families are able to talk about the tough stuff and plan. One of the biggest regrets people have is not sharing and expressing their love for another prior to someone unexpectedly passing.
Artists leave behind a body of work for us to continue to enjoy and perhaps in their passing we have a deeper appreciation of their creative genius and may be inspired to dig a little deeper into ourselves to spark our own creative legacy. Brene Brown states that our major contribution to this world will be born of creativity, and she’s 100% correct. We are all artists with different mediums in which we express our creativity, all of us will leave behind a legacy of creative means.
Those of us who have lost someone dear to us, know exactly what we lost, for it is in that absence that we see and feel clearly what we had. It’s my prayer that the lessons learned from those relationships are carried forward along with the love of that experience. Take only the good. Then move forward to create something better in your life, if anything, to honor that person you’ve lost.
Pushing forward through grief is empowering. Each courageous step through the emotional waves of grief moves us forward with the intention to love more deeply, more completely, and perhaps more fearlessly, for its love that saves us from the grief and sorrow. It’s love that is what we are truly here for – love is our true purpose in this life. And sometimes losing someone is the fastest route to something better that awaits us, for we have not missed what is meant to be ours.
The hardest part is letting go, but once we do, we are able to discover something amazing: a more profound new level in our capacity to love.