My Unpopular Opinion About Loss

What if Loss Were Nothing But Change?

A Gentle Reflection Inspired by Marcus Aurelius

"Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight." — Marcus Aurelius

There are moments when the ache of loss feels unbearable. Something leaves. Someone shifts. A chapter ends. And it can feel like a tearing, like something essential has been taken.

But what if, instead of only seeing loss as absence, we allowed ourselves to witness it as change?

What if, in the space where something once stood, something else is quietly emerging?

Nature doesn’t regret a leaf that falls. It trusts the compost. It delights in the transformation. It knows that decay is not the end—but a doorway.

Loss may never feel delightful. And it doesn’t have to. To heal, we must allow what needs to be felt. Make space for the grief. And what if we also give change a chance?

Change is a current. And if we let it, it moves through us, cleansing. It moves us, carrying us to new shores.

So if you are in a season of loss— a goodbye, a letting go, a shape-shift of what you thought was solid— what if you gave yourself permission to soften?

To not force meaning, but to trust that meaning may find you. To not pretend it doesn’t hurt, but to also sense the quiet magic in the emptying.

You are not broken. You are becoming.

And nature is still with you.

In every falling leaf, in every changing tide, in every breath that brings the new—

change is happening.

And magic is around the corner.