“Perhaps tragedies are only tragedies in the presence of love, which confers meaning to loss. Loss is not felt in the absence of love.” –Elizabeth Alexander
That is profound.
The greatest pain arises from the profoundest joy. To eliminate loss, one must abandon love since in this broken world suffering and death are not simply a risk, but a certainty. Love inevitably leads to sorrow. As C. S. Lewis so powerfully explained:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
Elizabeth Alexander originally wrote to mourn the loss of her young husband to sudden death. “The story seems to begin with catastrophe,” she wrote, “but in fact began earlier and is not a tragedy but rather a love story.” She is no Christian, but her personal journey reflects powerfully the great story of which we are all a part. Anywhere we open our book, we find tragedy–brutality, abandonment, hatred, violence, suffering–so that we must go back and back to the very start to discover that all this pain springs up from the love that inspired creation, and to understand that all of our suffering is borne in the great heart of God himself, who willingly embraced all our agony to gain the inexpressible joy of loving us. The cross is a tragedy, but it is more fully and deeply and finally a love story, and the end will be glorious.
Janathan Grace Reflections 
Awesome post Kent!
Glad you liked it!
This is so wonderful. Thank you for your words they are ministering to me through a difficult time right now.
So sorry that you are struggling through your own deep pain, a pain no one can understand fully but yourself… and God, who not only knows our every thought and feeling more truly than we know ourselves, but has experienced thousands of years of loss and heartache over those he loves so deeply. May you find peace.
Ever so lovely words expressing precious, astounding, heart-achingly beautiful truths.
Thanks, Carol. I’m glad you found my words touched your heart.