Choose Life and Feel Emotion

Life lesson: Find courage in the fact that you are not alone.

I just found out a longtime friend died. We were close once, but lost touch over time and distance.

I am so angry to find another friend gone. I just want to pound someone or something. It is so awful, so unfair. Why am I still alive? Why do I have to experience loss over and over again?

The thing is, I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye. People, friends, go and leave the Earth, which leaves a hole in my life. Sometimes that hole is filled with regret.

It isn’t so easy to meet new people at my age, let alone develop history with them.

I can understand why some people choose self-defeating behaviors. Sometimes I want to do the same.

A psychologist friend (now also dead) told me how to work out unexpressed emotions by writing them out. The goal? Don’t bury the emotion, feel the emotion.

If the emotion involves a person, write them a letter. It doesn’t have to be mailed. Or talk to an empty chair while imagining or pretending they are sitting there with you.

Today I don’t want to do any of that, I just want to escape. Instead of going to my chair, though, I am going to drive around and clear my head.

I have to keep finding courage to endure what seems to hit me over and over. I have to realize I am not the only one who feels as if misfortune has struck again. I expect you have days, sometimes weeks, like this. Remember, we don’t have to do this alone. Together, we can help each other through the rough patches.

Are you finding the courage to re-enter life?

Let me know how you are doing. I care.

Sincerely,

Lynn Brooke

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Photo Credit: © 2023 Rachel Gareau