CHALLENGE- Gratitude For What Was Taken?

When your heart is broken, is it possible to be thankful for what was taken? This excerpt, written by Kathleen O'Hara, discusses gratitude.


"Everything Taken"

Gratitude is being thankful not only for what was given, but what has been taken, too. At first, this sounds really odd. Why would you be grateful for what has been taken? Surely that goes against everything we know and feel. But think about it - even though someone has been taken, weren't they first given to you?

In other words, you cannot lose something or someone you once had. All those moments are still there, within you, in memories perhaps as fresh as the reality when they were forged. Therefore, you did at one time have the joy of that person, and for that you can be grateful.

Very often, the thing that brings us pain is the thing that once brought us joy. Would you have refused the gift of love from someone simply because it bears the risk of being taken away?

No, we accept the gift of love, knowing that sometimes it will bring us great suffering. And sometimes, it is that very suffering that makes us love more. So when you think of what has been taken away, try to keep in mind that there is another side of the coin; gratitude that what we loved had existed at all.
Kathleen O'Hara
(Kathleen writes about violent death and the ramifications of having to deal with the legal system. She is a grief therapist. Her college age son was murdered in 1999.)

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