Top Tweets for #NormalizeGrief

We aren’t immune to seeing the heartbreaking posts of families losing their dogs. Yesterday a post hit me hard and it made me think of Kahlan, the golden we had before Bunsen and before social media. My students were writing a unit test and I had some downtime while they finished. I sketched out the idea of a post about how dog people could care less about having supper with a deceased famous person because they would pick a lost dog in a second. Anyway, my own post made me emotional and my eyes got misty. A student had come up to ask me a question on the exam and asked if I was ok. I could have lied and said I got chemical in my eye (a plausible excuse as a chemistry teacher) but instead I said: “I’m ok, I was just thinking about a dog I used to have. How can I help you?” In that moment I realized it was the first time I publicly showed any kind of grief over a pet in front of my students. That evening, after a long day, I had our current golden Beaker snuggling with me on the couch. I told her about Kahlan. She didn’t understand what I was saying, but it was good to tell her some of the best stories. Our son Adam, now a young man, still lays with Beaker the same way he did with Kahlan when he was a toddler. It’s something that gives you the warm fuzzies but also brings up memories. The point to tie this all together is that people who have dogs know the bond they make with your family. We all empathize immensely with those who experience loss because most of us know that pain. They represent a cycle of just goodness in our lives. I’m going to take a page from John Stewart going forward. I loved our Kahlan, and though she is years gone, if I’m feeling sad about it, I’m not going to be ashamed feeling feelings about it, even publicly. In a way our emotions honor the memory of our pets because they are just so very very good.