<p>“I believe” we all have a small circle of relatives and friends who we love and they love us back.
When these people die, there is one less person for us to love and love us back.
We are not devastated by the death of many of those around us.
We are sad for the person who lost the one they love and in turn loved them back.
Can you imagine if we were devastated by the death of all those around us.
We are not made to be devastated by the death of all those around us.
There would be very little joy in living because there is death around us all.
We comfort those who have lost the one they love and in turn loved them back.
When we cry and grieve for a loved one, we are mourning their passing and our own loss.
As I grow older and witness the death of those I love so deeply, I realize how few people I really feel this way about and how few people feel this way about me.
I have learned to hold close my circle of loved ones and appreciate my good fortune to have them to love and be loved back</p>
<p>Tis true. My circle of people who I love and loved me back
is closing in. Loss of parents, 2 siblings, and other relatives, combined with friends leaving the area for econmic reasons and retirement makes for a recipe of isolation and lonlines. A stark contrast to growing up in a dynamic,full and lively upbringing. Lesson: Treasure those around you, esp. your spouse, children and friends. I am always sad for the elderly who have no one.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This happens every generation, and most of the people who post here are at that stage in the generational cycle. But ten years from now, the young people we discuss here will have families of their own, and the circle will expand again.</p>
<p>At a recent funeral a friend of mine said “We’re in the front pew now”, meaning that we are at that point in our life that we are losing our parents and are one generation closer to death ourselves.</p>
<p>I think that we have a small group of people in our lives who are essential to our happiness and losing them leaves a whole in us. Many of the people in our loves, while we do dove them, are not as crucial to our level of happiness and we recover more quickly from those losses.</p>
<p>The sad awareness of mortality we gain as we reach later life is part of why our lives become so rich at this age. We fully comprehend the preciousness of our loved ones, of each day we have, and of the beauty around us.</p>
<p>Part of that beauty is watching our children form their own families, which will follow the same pattern of change and loss in years to come (the later parts of the pattern after we’re gone).</p>
<p>Between my 35th and 41st year I lost my mother, had 2 miscarriages, lost my grandmother, my father and then my husband, all suddenly and unexpectedly. Talk about having the rug pulled out from under you. It was like being in a boxing ring being repeatedly punched before being able to stand up straight again.</p>
<p>^OhioMom…That is so much loss in such a short period of time. It is heartbreaking to say goodbye to so many loved ones, and to have lost a husband at such a young age is beyond sad…hugs to you as this thread must have really brought all those emotions to the forefront.</p>
<p>Thanks momma-three for your kind works. It is hard to imagine, unless you go through it. But, there are others who have lost entire families through natural disaster or various atrocities. So, there is always someone who has had it worse off. I feel for my kids, though. My youngest was a baby and too young to remember his dad. Whenever there has been a Cub Scout “Dad and Lad” event, a school “Doughnuts for Dads” or a “Dad’s Cub” event, I cringe for my kids. Kids are resilient, but I know the loss hurts and is profound. It is for the best they have no way of really knowing, because they were so young, what they have actually missed because of the extraordinary Dad they had.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I needed that, thank you!</p>