loss

In regards to looking forward and reflecting on the past, I couldn’t help but want to dig through my files and find this piece that Andrea wrote shortly after we all graduated from Drake. She probably doesn’t know that I’ve kept it and I hope she does’t mind that I’m posting it my blog, but it so beautifully captures the thoughts I would want to express.

loss
What is it about change that makes you appreciate what you no longer have, when it was something you so readily took for granted for weeks, months, years. It can be as simple as a friend to share a cup of coffee with in the morning or as significant as a soul mate.

If you’re lucky, you never really lose it, you just move away from the immediacy of them or it for the time being, making your return—no matter how brief—that much sweeter.

It’s funny how even after a loss or a major life change you still find yourself ready to whole-heartedly commit to a new relationship or lifestyle with no regard for the time that you’ll inevitably have to say good-bye once more and find yourself homesick for something that doesn’t exist. And no matter how many times you tell yourself to let go, move on, you can’t stop yearning for that time, place or person when life was crazy and complicated and just good. There is a sweetness in that memory, a simplicity of taking things one day at a time, sacrificing sleep for laughter, work for road trips and money for stolen moments together. Looking back, the time was priceless, but you can’t live in the past.

Press into your future with a reckless disregard for the practical and even if you’ll never go back to those days, bring pieces of them to the present and savor that cup of coffee on a new rooftop and adventure to an unknown neighborhood, realizing that tomorrow it will be something worth remembering.


I must say, Andrea has a wonderful way with words and I’m so blessed to recieve notes filled with wisdom and encouragement from her. She’s a true inspiration and dear friend whom I have to thank for inspiring me to spend the time writing more myself.