What Is Loss?
100 Answers
While the answers are infinite, here are 100 answers to the question: What is loss?
Loss is…
- An empty void
- Coldness pervading every crevice
- You not standing here anymore
- No more love notes
- Not always another’s death
- My demise
- Too much wandering
- Too little exploring
- Forgotten memories
- Reminders of times passed
- Lost morals
- Found confessions
- Giving all that mattered for something that does not
- An abyss
- A yawning chasm
- The reason for all these tears
- Your ghost caressing every numb limb
- A gain for the soil
- Searching for you
- Not finding you
- An opportunity passed
- Hating you for leaving me
- Loving you still
- Crying myself to sleep
- Nightmares present in daylight and night
- Finding a replacement
- Realising there is none to replace you
- Days passed in a blur
- Nights dragging for eternity
- Trying to get over it
- Learning to live with it
- Ignorance
- Accepting after denial
- More denying until you almost believe it
- Screaming at me
- Glaring at me after every found note
- Discordant sounds
- Tangled words
- A gaping hole
- Not being able to express it
- Grievous mourning
- A tangible ache that pulls my insides
- Reaching for your hand only to be greeted with nothingness
- Not knowing
- Going to make you question yourself
- Universal yet unique
- Something I blame myself for
- The guilt seeping in
- Not having said enough
- Those moments long gone
- Open calendars
- Empty tissue boxes
- Silence sounding so loud
- Complicated
- Really, really painful
- Staring out the window
- Seeing them everywhere
- Imaging they are still here
- Pretending otherwise
- Every known memory, however small on repeat in my head
- The change of routines
- Echoes of another time
- Cherishing every item
- Finally listening to what you told me
- Bleeding hearts
- A thousand poems I have now penned
- Revisiting those places
- Frequenting the darkness
- Ripping my heart out with no means to stop
- Breathing for more air
- Toying with my thoughts
- Going to leave an imprint
- Because I loved
- Weighing heavily on my shoulders
- Sickness roiling in my belly
- Knowing you would hate to see me like this
- Finding it hard to care
- Trying anyway
- Hoping the impossible
- Why I escaped
- Preferring the delusion
- Depleted energy
- Coming closer to God
- No one understanding, despite what they say
- Felt in every moment, especially when you least expect it
- What I cannot get back
- A lacking
- The blood spilling out
- Not being able to place that memory
- The perpetual state your keys are in
- Why time is needed for healing
- Not thinking it will get better
- Not realising that you are going to get better
- Not a curse
- A reminder to cherish every moment
- All part of the test
- A sign of your humanity
- Needed for growth
- Something you will not let break you
- Not the end
And this is only the beginning of what loss is, for it manifests in many ways but know it is a part of life and part of your journey. May anyone who is going through the heartbreaks of loss be eased from the burden. Ameen.
وَمِنَ ٱلنَّاسِ مَن يَعْبُدُ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ حَرْفٍۢ ۖ فَإِنْ أَصَابَهُۥ خَيْرٌ ٱطْمَأَنَّ بِهِۦ ۖ وَإِنْ أَصَابَتْهُ فِتْنَةٌ ٱنقَلَبَ عَلَىٰ وَجْهِهِۦ خَسِرَ ٱلدُّنْيَا وَٱلْـَٔاخِرَةَ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ هُوَ ٱلْخُسْرَانُ ٱلْمُبِينُ
-And there are some who worship Allah on the verge ˹of faith˺: if they are blessed with something good, they are content with it; but if they are afflicted with a trial, they relapse ˹into disbelief˺, losing this world and the Hereafter. That is ˹truly˺ the clearest loss.
~Qur’an 22:11
Thank you for all the support and inspiration I have been blessed with from so many individuals, including but not limited to:
Dovey ♡
Nabila Asif Life Lesson Writer
Beau
And all my loved ones
