My great grandmother always said the more we love, the more we grieve.

Damned if she wasn’t right.

It’s the emotional equivalent of Newton’s third law (for every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction).

Now, I feel things deeply. Love. Loss. Betrayal. It goes to the center of me, straight through, wrapping around my heart. I used to hate being so emotional, but I’ve learned to embrace it because life has shown me that some people don’t have or understand emotional depth and complexities. And while I’m sure that’s great when it comes to anger or frustration, love is something that should be experienced so profoundly it interweaves through the very fiber of our spirit, becoming part of our soul’s tapestry.

Yes, grief is exhausting. And awful. But it’s also a testament to love and life and people who’ve shaped us into who we are–people who have helped us grow.

Unfortunately, this past year has been riddled with loss. Family members and lifelong friends left this world and two sweet second-grade babies that I taught perished in a house fire.

It brings home the awful truth that our time on this Earth is finite. Every minute experienced is one less we have to live. And in the grand scheme of things, dust bunnies under the couch don’t matter (neither does money in the bank or designer clothes if we’re being honest). In the end, we die alone, but I believe we carry with us our experiences and our relationships to whatever higher plane await us on the proverbial otherside.

When I cannot express the depths of what I feel, when words fail me, I lean on music. And so, to my dear friends and my sweet babies who’ve left this world, this song is for you. I hope you know that just by being in my life, you’ve changed me for the better.

You are loved. You are missed. You mattered. And, indeed, the world is a much better place because you were in it.