The right time, the right place and for the right reasons

"Grief dares us to love once more."-Terry Tempest Williams

"It takes courage to risk loving again. It's the courage that affirms the love we shared with the one we have lost."-Martha Whitmore Hickman

I've always felt that if it's meant to happen it will happen at "the right time, the right place and for the right reasons."

T and I first spent a long time connecting at a social gathering that I wasn't planning on attending, but ultimately decided to go. I have always been so thankful I went to that Halloween party in October, 1988.

A year ago I really didn't want to go to a Saturday morning medical conference but ultimately decided to attend.

About 1/2 way through the morning, while walking to the bathroom, I ran directly into J. We knew each other but hadn't crossed paths for many years.

She didn't know T had died and I didn't know she had been through a difficult divorce many years ago. We met for coffee the next Saturday.

I'm really thankful I went to that conference on April 22nd, 2017.

Till death do us part

"In good times as well as in bad, in sickness as well as in health, for richer or for poorer...until death do us part."

Most of us said the same vows-or a variation of the same-when we got married.

However, when we were young, all the potential bad things were imaginary-especially the thought of losing your partner to death.

"The death of a beloved in amputation. But when two people marry, each one has to accept that one of them will die before the other."-Madeleine L'Engle

Obviously, true.

It just doesn't make the loss any easier to accept when it's your reality.

When you're the one navigating through life after the loss.

But please know...you will navigate through it.

And your partner would have expected/wanted nothing less.