Grieving right this time

I grieving again over some recent losses, since I didn't finish the job the first time. I recognized that it wasn't so much the lost of the role as the loss of identity that carried so much pain. I attributed so much of my identity to these roles -- this one's boyfriend, this one's husband, this business's owner -- that when the role was gone, a piece of me felt like it left as well. But it didn't...it was just the role that went away. I see that now, and hope that the rest of the grieving process carries this wicked weight away that I've been carrying for too long.

Shakespeare was right: All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players...