“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” - Vicki Harrison A psychologist friend once told me, "It's not normal the amount of grief and loss you have experienced already for the amount of years you have lived." From babies to young mommas to grandparents to teenagers. From disease to natural causes to accidents to suicide. I have been near to it all and know that I probably haven't even faced the hardest ones for me yet. As I tend to do with life, I have taken it all in, absorbed and learned. Following are some lessons my heart has been through and the stories that accompany them. Lesson #1: This is really hard. The first experience I had with losing someone very close to me, was my friend Shawn. He was one of the most kind, beautiful spirits I had ever met and such a good friend. When he was only 20, engaged to be married, he died from ...