Le deuil:

: mourning, to be in mourning; grieving
.
I hopped in my truck yesterday to the sound of the man on the radio saying... Nous sommes toujours en deuil, toujours, toujours, nous sommes en deuil. As you might gather, French radio chit-chat is rather looser on the tongue than English radio banter, and it tends to be emotionally honest. Some ten minutes after arriving at my destination, he was still sharing these words and the meanings he attaches to them, and I wasn't going anywhere.

I sat in my parked truck outside my home listening to a stranger - a lovely one, it felt to me - speak to no one in particular about how we are forever in the process of mourning. Someone, lost. Or, someone loss-ed. Always. Forever. We humans grieving one loss or another throughout our too brief lives.

It doesn't seem fair, does it, that we should forever be losing people we cherish or love or simply enjoy being around? Well, I can vouch that it really isn't fair at all. We all deserve at least one anchor and safe waters to cast it in. Without the anchor the waters get rough. What had me glued to his words though, was the need to share in the knowledge that I`m not alone in my deuil. I find it comforting to know that loss is so universal, so very human, and that it isn`t just happening to me.
.