Just finished reading a book on grieving entitled And Not One Bird Stopped Singing: Coping With Transition and Loss in Aging by Doris Moreland Jones. The title of the book is what caught my attention. How true it is that transitions, loss, and tragedies in our lives go unnoticed by the universe. Life goes on as usual even though, for those touched by the event, it seems to stand still.

I will never forget the surreal experience when my oldest daughter called from the pediatric emergency room to tell me that her seven week old baby, my grandson, had died. My youngest daughter and I were in a department store buying items for the house we were moving into that week. In that instant, our world stopped, sucked into singular focus on this impossible happening. We drove to the hospital, my youngest asking "what happened mommy?" through her sobs. "I don't know, sweetheart, I don't know."

The world outside our family did not stop or even slow down and, just like this book's title, not one bird stopped singing...
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Grief is the agony of an instant, the indulgence of grief the blunder of a life. -Benjamin Disraeli