Loss and grief are universal. We all experience them as part of the human condition. And when we do – it is not because we are being punished or singled out.  We experience loss and grief the same way we experience new beginnings and joy, anger and anxiety, desire and emptiness, engagement and delight.  We all experience a panorama of emotions over our lives.  All of them are juicy and deserve to be honored and held.   When we make room for and hold our emotions we open ourselves up to our inherent wholeness and strength.  Emotions are simply energy – they come and go.  We have the capacity to be with them in a way that doesn’t indulge or ignore them.  In Buddhism the practice of meditation offers specific instructions for how to do this.  For any of you who are local – I am offering a meditation class starting next week “When things fall apart: Meditation for challenging times” where we will practice this together.  This is one of my positive coping strategies – to have the focus of a new meditation class I am offering be one that will support me in this grieving process.   This brings me to you the reader and a question I have been sitting with “how have you navigated grief and loss in your life?”