For the rest of my life, I will live with my hands outstretched for things that are no longer there. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

But are we in fact asking the wrong question—instead of how do we stay happy, should we ask how do we survive, stay alive, or even bloom when the world goes dark, when we are, for instance, overwhelmed by illness or heartbreak, loss or pain?  Julia Baird, Phosphorescence: A Memoir of Finding Joy When Your World Goes Dark

That was the funny thing about regret. It lived inside of you, shrinking down until you could almost believe it had vanished, only to spring up, fully formed called forward by people who meant you no harm. Julie Clark, The Last Flight

Not to make loss beautiful but to make loss the place where beauty starts. Gregory Orr

We bereaved are not alone. We belong to the largest company in all the world – the company of those who have known suffering. Helen Keller