Love and goodbye
“Grief is the price we pay for love.” ~Queen Elizabeth II
Watching the beautiful funeral ceremonies for Queen Elizabeth II yesterday, I got to thinking about the many ways that love opens us to the possibility of loss. Throughout our lives, we lose close friends who move away. As we age, our parents slow down. As our kids and grandkids grow up, we feel another kind of loss as we watch childhood give way to adulthood.
Each time I wave goodbye — when a car filled with loved ones is backing out of my driveway, or I’m leaving a dear friend at a restaurant — a twinge of sadness tugs for a moment on my heart. And I’m grateful for the love that makes it so. ~CL
Photo taken at the Empire Bluff Trail at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, by Cindy La Ferle
Cindy La Ferle
Throughout my career, I've worked as a book production editor, travel magazine editor, features writer, and weekly newspaper columnist. My award-winning lifestyles features and essays have appeared in many national magazines and anthologies, including Newsweek, Reader's Digest, The Christian Science Monitor, Writer's Digest, Victoria, Better Homes & Gardens, Bella Grace, and more. My weekly Sunday "Life Lines" column ran for 14 years in The Daily Tribune (Royal Oak, MI) and won a First Place (Local Columns) award from the Michigan Press Association. My essay collection, Writing Home, includes 93 previously published columns and essays focusing on parenthood and family life.
