A Note from Kate

This week at church our pastor reminded us that change always brings loss. Even a good change, like the joyful occasion of welcoming your first child, brings loss of freedom and spontaneity. More importantly, if you fail to properly grieve these losses, it can be hard to move into the next season in a healthy way.

As our family looks forward to moving to a new house, there are many firsts we look forward to. Our girls will have their own bathroom (we’re moving from 1 to 4 bathrooms). My husband and I will each have our own closets. We’ve never had a fireplace before! There is even a rock climbing wall in the basement the girls can’t wait to master.

Yet these good changes mean losing a home that we have invested so much in. We’ve fallen in love with living by the river and having sidewalks and nearby parks. We’ve had new windows and central AC installed, and my husband built me a custom walk-in pantry. It wasn’t until a few days ago that I realized we have to leave this home we love in order to enjoy our next home, and it made me cry because we truly have loved this 100-year-old masterpiece of a house.

We grieve that a pandemic we thought would be over by now still affects us, while rejoicing that grocery pickup is now a staple of society. We grieve the loss of loved ones, and then we are able to experience other feelings of joy in a healthy way because we have processed the emotions of loss.

Here’s a reminder to take time to process your grief. Move into the new year by being gentle with yourself, holding the losses along with anticipation and joy at the good changes that will come.

Kate Gassman, Creator A Wild Lass http://www.awildlass.com/blog Instagram: @awildlass Twitter: @awildlass Facebook: facebook.com/awildlass Etsy: etsy.com/shop/awildlass