Our heart collectively breaks for the loss of @kobebryant, his daughter and John Altobelli's family #rip #pray

By Joy A. Kennelly

I haven't blogged in a long time, but I feel compelled even though I don't know what to say except how sad I am that we've lost Kobe, his daughter and the rest of the people who flew on that flight.

As I consider the Grammy's honoring Prince, Nipsy, and now changing it to include Kobe it makes me happy to hear how this is bringing us together such a divisive time in our country. I can't help but wonder if God knew we needed to lose someone so special to help us remember how grateful we need to be for the loved ones in our life.

And for what a difference Kobe has made in our community and our world.

And to remind us that we are one city, one community, one country, one world. And we need each other like never before. We can't do life alone. We need each other. We need our heroes. We need people we can admire and look up to, but they are only human.

Ultimately, we need to look to God of all comfort for our comfort. I just listened to Sheryl Sandberg's interview with Clay Scroggins entitled Your Struggle Can Be Your SuperPower and it's so timely I'm sharing it again here because it's about grief, loss, post traumatic growth, and hope it gives you some encouragement if this death is impacting you harder than you expected:

I think the only time I watched a basketball game was when I read the most books in an elementary school contest and my Dad and I won rafter seats. I don't ever remember who played. I also know my Dad always wanted me to play due to my height, but it wasn't me.

I do know what a great guy Kobe became after going through the rape trial and how it changed his life. I have been watching Fred Rogan and his team discussing Kobe's life and it's so intimate and emotional. 

They played his short film, but I'm choosing to play the Oscar's version in light of Kobe's death: 

 

I hope you find comfort for the loss you're experiencing, whether it be of your sports hero, your friend, your mentor, your business associate, your father, your sister, your niece, anyone you loved in your life.

Grief is ok to experience. It's ok to cry. It's ok to not be strong. You're also allowed to grieve however you need to. Don't let anyone tell you to stifle it, get back to work, or live in denial. It will come out in other ways if not.

What I found so healing when I lost my Mom in 2016 was to find a Griefshare group to meet with. It's an hour session, you hear 45 minutes of what you will experience and comfort, then share briefly with everyone. What I loved the most was the journal workbook where you could work through your grief privately too. It was so healing. I hope you'll consider joining a group if you need help in coping too: https://www.griefshare.org/

My heart goes out to our city, our community, our country and our world. This has been a terrible loss. I only hope it brings us together when we need to be healed as a whole. We can't continue living in such turmoil, such crisis and such sad state of affairs in our country.

I ask everyone to pray for California. Now even more. Please pray for California. Pray for those who lost their loved ones today. We need to come together....