It’s a new year filled with new beginnings, but today I thinking about endings.  My husband’s leukemia is no longer in remission. My boss’s father died this morning.  My neighbor is in the last stages of cancer. I’m hovering over our cat Charlie, anxiously awaiting test results that may confirm a terminal diagnosis.  And last night, at midnight in a sterile animal emergency hospital, I watched my best friend of 25 years make the hard choice to have her beloved cat, Ruby, put down.

Even while I grieve, there is a voice inside me that whispers “This is all part of the circle. It will all be okay.” 

Melissa’s love of Ruby brought her so much joy.  And love is what enabled her to make the right choice to end Ruby’s suffering.  Without love, we never fully experience joy.  But grief is as much a product of love as joy.  And, if we refuse to grieve, we don’t open that space in our hearts for love to enter us again, bringing us joy.

Love, joy, grief - a holy trinity of emotion.  The comfort is in knowing that even in our grief, it we allow it, love and joy will return.  That is what the voice inside me whispers today.