Friday, October 22, 2010

Goodbyes...

When you are young, death is so hard to fathom. The inevitable ending that is as much a part of living as birth visited our home recently. Our remaining gerbil died. I am not sure if she died from old age or loneliness. My precious girls cried upon the realization that Jewels was no longer with us. Grief is necessary. The process of saying goodbye is so important. They wept hard and grieved loudly. My heart broke. Not really for the gerbils we have lost, though I will miss them. My heart broke for my daughters. They have experienced so little loss. Part of parenting is putting your heart out there to be broken. Part of parenting is teaching your precious ones that death is part of life. Saying goodbye is hard. But living without is worse. Living without pets, friends, or loved ones is sterile and lonely. I firmly believe that it is better to love and have to let go than to miss out altogether.

So we had a lesson in Goodbyes. Pray for little ones and hurting hearts.

1 comment:

tumbleweedgirl said...

i'm so sorry that they experienced that loss, and that you did too. it's hard to see our kids grieve.

i know i don't comment as often as i think of it, but i read.