I am amazed how whatever I need shows up on the Internet in the form of a quote, blog post, or tweet from a friend. I lost my cat last week. On the day my heart hurt the most, a blog from a friend carried this quote:

“Every great loss demands that we choose life again. We need to grieve in order to do this.” Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom, p. 38.

The need to grieve applies to the loss of dreams, expectations and thwarted goals. You don’t always get what we want no matter how hard you work. Life can be unfair.

Yet grieving allows you to express your sadness for the loss so you can move on. Anger can motivate you to change, but you get stuck in the past if you don’t release the anger in time. You drift into old wishes and worries that keep you from seeing what is real.

I am sad and there is nothing in my power that I can do to bring back my cat. And I know the quicker I accept this painful truth, the sooner I can move back into the moving cycle of life.

The same is true for all of my disappointments and rejections. Is there anything you still need to grieve so you can free your mind to move forward?