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1b:["$","p","p-6",{"children":"You see, part of the beauty of the human experience is that we can be connected to other humans in a variety of ways--physically, emotionally, or mentally."}]
1c:["$","p","p-7",{"children":"Those connections are part of what makes life worth living."}]
1d:["$","p","p-8",{"children":"The thing is that the act of living can be a voluntary experience to be cherished as it is experienced, as well as in retrospect. But when life is filled with trauma and madness and mayhem, it can become an involuntary act, filled with numbness and darkness, and only the faint hope of reaching a piece of light at some corner of the darkness."}]
1e:["$","p","p-9",{"children":"For many of us, our lives are so filled with traumatic experiences--poverty, relationship turmoil and disconnection from the milk of human kindness--that we sometimes find that life isn't really worth living at all."}]
1f:["$","p","p-10",{"children":"My childhood had been filled with the traumatic experiences of poverty. To add to that trauma, I lost several loved ones within a small span of time."}]
20:["$","p","p-11",{"children":"Darkness began to surround me and threatened to engulf me several times over the next two years. By the time I graduated from high school and had to face more loss, I was prepared to face it with the only coping mechanism I had--disconnection."}]
21:["$","p","p-12",{"children":"And for a while, I was disconnected from everything."}]
22:["$","p","p-13",{"children":"But eventually, I began to climb out of my darkness and make connections to warm, living human beings who would help me to shape and develop an understanding of life."}]
23:["$","p","p-14",{"children":"My big brother Ronnie was one of those."}]
24:["$","p","p-15",{"children":"Therapy was another."}]
25:["$","p","p-16",{"children":"I was helped to find an understanding that nothing is forever."}]
26:["$","p","p-17",{"children":"We can keep alive those with whom we are connected if we keep them in our hearts and minds."}]
27:["$","p","p-18",{"children":"We hold on to memories, to photos and to other mementos which trigger memories of the connections we made. And in doing so, bits and pieces of those people live on in us."}]
28:["$","p","p-19",{"children":"Many of us are still maintaining the connection to loved ones long gone, but still alive in our hearts and minds."}]
29:["$","p","p-20",{"children":"Some of us are still holding on to friends, spouses and lovers long gone from our lives but not from this world."}]
2a:["$","p","p-21",{"children":"At some point in life, you will find yourself saying goodbye. You will have to say goodbye to lovers, to friends and to family, as they leave you alone in this world with disconnection or when they move into death."}]
2b:["$","p","p-22",{"children":"It's difficult to say goodbye, but the end of each relationship is a natural part of life."}]
2c:["$","p","p-23",{"children":"I am reminded of the film Lion King which I had seen at least one hundred times with my son by the time he was four years old."}]
2d:["$","p","p-24",{"children":"The father, Mufasa, who eventually dies, explains life and death to his son Simba, with the metaphor \"circle of life.\""}]
2e:["$","p","p-25",{"children":"Essentially, we all live, and we all must die in order for the world to make sense."}]
2f:["$","p","p-26",{"children":"And, sometimes, the love we hold for others must also die."}]
30:["$","p","p-27",{"children":"When the loss is still fresh, it's hard to find the greater meaning, because the pain is too fresh."}]
31:["$","p","p-28",{"children":"Eventually, we can find that meaning, even if we need therapy to get us through."}]
32:["$","p","p-29",{"children":"But eventually any of us can find it, embrace it, and find strength in our loss, even as the love makes its transition into memories."}]
33:["$","p","p-30",{"children":"I usually do it with the words to a song by GC Cameron, \"How Do I Say Goodbye,\" originally from the film, Cooley High: \"And I'll take with me the memories, to be my sunshine after the rain.\""}]
34:["$","p","p-31",{"children":"Bid farewell to the loss and take with you the memories as you complete your journey in the circle of life."}]
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