Crying in the Supermarket

 A friend sent me this poem today (see below)  and it seemed to fit in with my grief and my thoughts. I hope it offers you some comfort if you are feeling lost after losing a furry baby.

Today was especially rough. I went to pick up some things from the supermarket and they had organic blueberries on sale. I picked them up put them in my cart and the tears came. 

My Roxie loved blueberries. I tried to gain some composure but the produce fella who knows me asked "how are you doing?" More tears as the words choked in my throat that my 16 yo Roxie went over the rainbow bridge.

He showed me a picture of his dog and shared he had lost a few over the years. He reassured me it will get better in time.

Another girl that worked there had dog sat for me and knew my Roxie and she took one look at me and said "whats wrong?" and I told her about Roxie. She said "Oh no!!! she was such a good dog and had the best life with you.Try to be grateful that you gave her such a good life."

I continued around the store, trying to keep it together. When I checked out, the girl at the register made the mistake of saying "How are you doing?"  (I use to work in the store so i know a lot of the employees). I shared what happened.  Turned out she lost her 14 yo Shepard a month ago and her eyes filled up, as we looked at each other, with our eyes brimming with tears, we both knew the pain in our hearts that we were feeling..

Grief  is a process and we feel a variety of emotions each day.  I need to allow myself to be human and accept I'm grieving and not judge myself for not meeting my own expectations.

Instead i need to be gentle and kind and remind myself its a process and also its okay to cry and feel the pain, even in the supermarket. :-)

Grief is grief whether a person or a pet or a loss of some kind, it hurts and healing takes time;