Today is my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary so it seemed fitting for me to write about love continuing after the loss of someone you love.

Love is greater than death. Love is the one thing that will continue through time. Though the years go by and you begin to create memories without your loved one, the love still remains. Your loved ones live in both your heart and memories forever. The pain of their loss softens. The love stays just as strong.

I believe even the biggest skeptic, somewhere down deep, believes death is not the end. After all, energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transformed. This allows for the belief that we are transformed after our physical body is gone. This belief also allows us to continue our relationships with our loved ones.

Here are some ways you can continue your relationship with your loved one:

Talk to Them

Whether you speak out loud or silently in your head, this is the most common way that you can continue a relationship with your loved one. Talking allows you to feel a powerful connection.

Write to Them

Buy yourself a journal. Whenever there is something that you want to share with them, write your loved one a letter. Just because you can no longer pick up the phone to share something with them doesn’t mean you can no longer communicate with them. Writing will bring you feelings of both strength and liberation. It’s powerful.

Include Your Loved One on Special Occasions

You will be thinking about your loved one and missing them. The only natural thing to do is to include them!  One way you can do this is by setting a place setting for them at the holiday table. This allows you to feel that they are a part of the celebration.

Speak About Them to New People

Throughout your life, you are going to meet people who never got to know your loved one. These people may include a new friend, a significant other, or you may get married and have children. A way to keep your loved one’s legacy alive is to continue to keep their stories going. Tell new people things about them and show them photographs.

Continue to Make Them Proud

Live your best life, do your best and continue to make them proud as if they were still present in the physical form.

Have a Quilt Made of Their Clothing

Imagine yourself wrapped up in pieces of their clothing. Imagine feeling close and connected to them with a comforting reminder that their love is literally wrapped around you.

Wear a Piece of Their Jewelry

There is something to be said about wearing a piece of your loved one’s jewelry and feeling that connection. It is a comforting reminder of your loved one’s role in your life.

These are just a few ways to continue to feel connected to your loved one.

Remember, your loved one may physically be gone from your life but they are forever a part of you. You never have to let them go. They took a piece of you when they left the physical earth, yet at the same time, they left a piece of themselves behind for you. They are forever a part of you just as you are forever a part of them.

Your loved ones are forever in the sacred spaces of both your heart and mind. It is in these places where you can always reach for them and hug them.

I hope this brings you some comfort.