When Life [Doesn't] Go On

How does life go on when life doesn't go on?

These are the words that have been whirring in my brain for the past couple of days.

Friends of mine have lost a child. Several weeks into their pregnancy, they were forced to say goodbye to a life that had yet to fully live.

Aside from the heavy heart and hurt of seeing friends in pain, I am reminded weekly, sometimes daily of the loss incurred by so many. A spouse is taken too quickly by fate. A child lost to disease. A baby who could no longer fight a terminal battle got its wings.

So many broken hearts. So much sadness. I cannot fathom the despair some may feel in their darkest moments.

How does life go on when life doesn't go on?

When I ask that question- I hear an answer echo: It just does. Because it has to.

I suppose its how our lives continue that make the biggest impact and difference. We cannot keep the memory of our loved ones alive, if we wither into despondency. We can not carry on a legacy, if we chose not to continuing engaging in the life around us.

Anne Lemott says, "“You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” 

I think of my friends. Of all they have loved and lost. I think of all the children who have lost parents, of all the husbands and wives who have lost a spouse, of all the parents who have lost a child (or more). The prayer and desire of my heart... is that they do eventually learn to dance with the limp. However long it takes to learn.