Grief and Change: the Power of Letting Go

If we do not grieve what we miss, we are not praising what we love. We are not praising the life we have been given in order to love. If we do not praise whom we miss, we are ourselves in some way dead. So grief and praise make us alive.

- Martin Prechtel, The Smell of Rain on Dust: On Grief and Praise

Grief is a natural response not only to the death of someone we love, but to other kinds of loss and change - in fact, it's a part of any major life transition. None of us escape loss, heartbreak, and upheaval in this life, but few of us these days know how to grieve in a way that enables grief to do its true work: of reconnecting us, more strongly than before, to life and love. We're encouraged to keep our grieving seemly, and to "move…