And now see things not only through more compassionate eyes, but more hopeful and wiser ones as well. The following are my tender observations and life lessons gleaned from loving a man who has endured tragic loss, and yet has found his way out of the darkness of grief into the light of life anew. They are the reasons why I love my husband eternally, and they are also the inspiration for the best changes I have ever made to my outlook on life. Though they may sound like platitudes or cliches, when learned along the journey of grief or by loving someone who walks this journey daily, they tend to take on a whole new meaning for everyday life and become words to live by. All things happen for a reason — even if you have no idea what that reason is at the time. After my husband lost his first wife, a minister quoted this line to him in great earnest and sympathy. Thank God he was a man of the cloth, or my husband probably would have pounded him into salt, for the last thing a newly bereaved spouse needs or wants to hear is that their dearly departed was taken from this earth “for a reason”. To them, there is no earthly excuse for a loving God to take away a life partner, thereby causing the survivors so much anguish. Years later, however, my husband came to realize that these words were true. He, now, after all these years, possesses the wisdom of hindsight, and has surmised that perhaps his wife died for reasons he cannot and may never fully understand, but are within the perfect will of the Almighty. Having such a tragedy deepen his faith has only served to comfort him when faced with other dark times in his life. The reality spoke with a mighty force. —wow4u.com