It seems like every day that\u00a0something pops up on my news-feed telling me how to ‘think myself happy.’ It’s become a\u00a0cultural\u00a0preoccupation. But the\u00a0illusion that we can live with a permanent\u00a0smiley\u00a0face\u00a0does\u00a0sadness a big disservice. Because while\u00a0sadness and grief aren’t\u00a0‘fun’ emotions, they’re\u00a0essential to living whole, healthy and and (most the time) happy\u00a0lives.<\/p>\n
Always triggered by loss of some sort, sadness and grief point us toward what matters most to us in life.\u00a0Shutting\u00a0ourselves off to it – whether\u00a0distracting ourselves with busyness, denying or numbing it –\u00a0also shuts us off to joy.<\/p>\n
Shutting ourselves off to sadness\u00a0– whether by distracting ourselves with busyness, denying or numbing it – also shuts us off to joy. It’s for this reason\u00a0I was\u00a0delighted to sit down with Liz Dawes who\u00a0lost her son Conner to brain cancer at eighteen. The 18-month journey\u00a0from Connor’s diagnosis to his death was\u00a0marked with enormous angst for all who\u00a0loved him. Throughout that time, and in the two years since his passing, how Liz has coped and channeled her grief is deeply inspiring. The\u00a0Robert Connor Dawes Foundation\u00a0<\/a>founded in his honor has already raised over one million dollars for\u00a0brain\u00a0cancer projects.<\/p>\n \u200bIf you\u2019ve ever lost anyone you love, you\u00a0know how painful grief can be.\u00a0Yet\u00a0despite how it wrenches the\u00a0heart,\u00a0we all\u00a0have the capacity to move beyond our grief, to reclaim our wholeness and live deeper than before.<\/p>\n