The Healing Journey

January 26, 2025

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory”
– Dr. Seuss

When Dana was a young girl, her grandmother told her something she didn’t really understand until much later in life. She told her to forgive and forget when you have an argument with a family member or friend. She said that cherishing the moments you have with them is better than holding grudges and nursing resentments … because you won’t have them forever.  She spoke from experience.

What relevance did that have to a girl who had never suffered the loss of a loved one at her young age? However, by the time she turned 20, she had known more loss that most people experience. Her beloved grandmother died of cancer, and within the same year, her boyfriend was killed in a car accident. The next year, perhaps most tragic of all, her best friend died of suicide. This left Dana overwhelmed with grief and guilt because she was convinced she didn’t do what she should have done to prevent it … even though she wasn’t sure what she could have done or would have done because she didn’t fully understand that her friend was suffering from such debilitating depression.

As she stumbled from day to day, trying to deal with the grief and conflicting emotions and pain, all Dana could do was remember the words of her grandmother about cherishing each moment and looking for the love and clinging to it even after they were gone. Her friend’s suicide made her realize just how fleeting life can be and how quickly it can be lost for reasons we’ll never entirely understand. 

Cherish the moment. The words made a lot of sense to her now, and the lesson was a painful one but a necessary one. 

©Joseph Pisani

***