Losses

Losses

The older we get, the more we experience the loss of  things we love.  Elizabeth Bishop’s poem traces a series of losses, and asserts that the “art of losing isn’t hard to master.”  That may be so for material things, including former places of residence.  But losing someone loved, is another story of disaster that’s hard to accept. There seems to be a recognition that to call  the other losses disasters, may have been an exaggeration.   Mastering the art of losing a loved person is not so easy.  Notice the emphatic “Write it!”  This loss is truly disastrous, though it’s hard to admit, because it makes the art of mastering it more difficult. The poem suggests that fully accepting the reality of such a loss is necessary to be healed.

Have you experienced a material or personal loss that seemed disastrous, but in the aftermath, were eventually able to move forward, perhaps with new wisdom?