Thank you, @cookieman. It’s been a bad couple of years, actually, and whenever I think it can’t get worse, I turn out to be wrong.
Sorry, @Cruiser, but with all due respect, I totally do not buy that. What blessing is there in, say, loss of eyesight or loss of mobility? How about a serious and potentially fatal illness in your child? How lucky are you to lose your trust in somebody you love, or to realize that you are never going to even come close to achieving your lifelong goal? How about what happens to a relationship when addiction or abuse comes into the picture?
Those are grievous losses with none of the built-in compensation and comfort that might come in saying, for example, of a deceased spouse, “We had a wonderful marriage for 35 years,” or of an athletic sibling, “He died doing what he loved best.”
Time and use take their toll, and most of the time there is no offsetting benefit. We just have to learn to live with loss as best we can, accepting the help and support that human beings can and do give each other, and letting go of the things we can’t hold onto.