Loss and grief are universal experiences and, perhaps, our most frequent path toward transformation and growth.

Our responses to trauma and to success are examples of what transformation is all about. The word “transformation” means a significant alteration in the form of something has taken place—a moving across or beyond the old form to something unknown or unknowable before the change began.

In its healthiest sense, transformation is opening to a larger reality than the one our personal ego could admit previously. During the process of transformation, we experience being broken or of breaking with the past. We sense discontinuity in our lives as we go through any major transitions. That sensing of discontinuity, the healing that begins with acknowledging change, is an important part of the transformative journey we often call grief.

In spite of broken appearances, we aren’t really changing what is meaningful to us. The essence of who and what we are remains—the thread that weaves its way through our story remains unbroken.