Loss, Redemption and Growth

I have been thinking about my observation that my posts about ADD and loss and redemption are the ones that people read when they visit this blog.  Many visitors come here after searching for "poem(s) about losing things".  ADD is the subject of my most read post and it can be looked at as a form of loss.  A loss of a life lived in the mainstream.  Alice Sebold's book The Lovely Bones is about loss and redemption on several levels.  In some ways my return to university was prompted by my sense of loss from not having finished the first time.  I would redeem myself by returning to university.  To be human is to suffer loss and to seek redemption.  In fact, some would argue that their lives are better after a loss.

In Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst argues that we all go through losses from the moment of our birth when we are ejected from the safety our mother's womb to the day when we face the ultimate human loss, our own death.  In fact, she argues that these losses are necessary for our growth.  Loss, redemption and growth.  The triad that defines our humanity,

I don't know that I agree with Viorst in that loss is necessary, but I will agree that it is inevitable.  To be human is to engage with others, to take risks.  We don't always succeed.  We fail.  Others fail us.  Some people are out to get us.  Random events can make the world seem to be a dangerous place.  Nature is capricious.  Humans look for meaning.  It can be hard to find meaning in some events.  It is how we deal with our losses that defines us as humans.  Do we step up to each challenge?  Do we hold back?  Do we give up?  Do we look for the good?  Do we look for redemption and opportunities for growth?

Redemption can come in strange ways and at times that we are not expecting it.  An opportunity for growth is not always obvious.  Sometimes we just ignore it.