Wonderful post. I'm always struck by how emotional I get around this topic. It finally hit me today. Grief and parenthood pulls at my heart in a slightly different way: the loss of children that never came to be. From miscarriages, to pre-mature births, to my family experience with my infertility. We mourned the loss of not being able to have a biological family (the imagined family we dreamed of). I remember too few adults capable of meeting our grief where we were at - and having also met a family that's lost a toddler, it was all too true for them, as well. We need more places to comfortably sit in grief together (all kinds of grief) far more than we need new VR glasses.
Martín Prechtel’s gem of gentle wisdom, "Grief is praise because it is the natural way love honors what it misses", continues to be a mystery school for me. A singular experience of yearning that levels us all.
Wonderful post. I'm always struck by how emotional I get around this topic. It finally hit me today. Grief and parenthood pulls at my heart in a slightly different way: the loss of children that never came to be. From miscarriages, to pre-mature births, to my family experience with my infertility. We mourned the loss of not being able to have a biological family (the imagined family we dreamed of). I remember too few adults capable of meeting our grief where we were at - and having also met a family that's lost a toddler, it was all too true for them, as well. We need more places to comfortably sit in grief together (all kinds of grief) far more than we need new VR glasses.
Martín Prechtel’s gem of gentle wisdom, "Grief is praise because it is the natural way love honors what it misses", continues to be a mystery school for me. A singular experience of yearning that levels us all.
Brian Doyle's 'The Wet Engine' is another amazing book that explores a father's experience of navigating his young son's need for a heart transplant.
I had the opportunity to read both books - at recommendations from fellow fathers in your community - last year and can confirm they’re must reads.