Grieving Relationships Lost

Relationship lost. Like Paradise Lost. Eden behind us, thorns and toil before us. It can feel like that.

I am learning, however, that relationships are worth pursuing...to a point. There is a point where they must be let go. There is a point where some seek reconciliation, while others do not. A point where some want no accountability in their relationships - freedom, as it were, to walk all over you without cost. That is not relationship.

The proper response to relationship lost is grief, for a time. Those who do not grieve either do not know relationship, or can cast it off with ease because of a pathological ability to dismiss people as important.

So I will grieve without guilt. I will wrestle with my conduct of relationships, and will second guess myself again and again. But I will grieve. Because a relationship lost is paradise lost.