We grieve because we’ve loved

Dila Cakir I’m sure some of you have read Claire A. Nivola’s book “Star Child.” In it, she writes: “To visit planet Earth, you will have to be born as a human child. At first you will have to learn to use your new body, to move your arms and legs and to pull yourself upright. You will learn to run, to use your hands, to make sounds and form words. Slowly you will learn to take care of yourself. There will be so much for you to learn and so much for you to feel—pleasure and fear, joy and disappointment, sadness and wonder. You will grow up, travel and work. Perhaps you will have children, even grandchildren, of your own. Over the years you will try to make sense of that happy, sad, full, empty, always-shifting life you are in. And when the time comes to return to your star, it may be hard to say goodbye to that strangely beautiful world” (2-26). I’ve come to realize that if we love, we also grieve.

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