When Life Goes On…And You May Not Want To…
By Benjamin Groff II GroffMedia© | benandsteve.com | ©2026
October 23, 2026
Good morning, coffee drinkers! Have you ever lost something that mattered to you? Or screwed up so badly that even your dog wanted a little distance? And if you’re a cat person, did your cat refuse to look at you for a whole week?
Of course, with cats, it can be hard to tell whether you’ve disappointed them or they’re just keeping regular office hours.
Perhaps it was someone you loved, a friendship you depended on, or work you believed would carry you into the future. Sometimes a loss leaves an empty place where certainty used to be.
We encounter these moments at different stages of life, often before we feel prepared for them. A child losing a dear friend discovers something no child should have to learn so soon. The unexpected death of a grandparent can change the familiar comfort of childhood. Years later, losing a parent may bring grief that takes longer to understand than we first realize.
Over time, we may become more familiar with loss. Familiarity does not make it easy, but experience can help us find our footing. We begin to understand that making peace with an absence does not mean forgetting what someone meant to us.
Other losses are harder to name. There may be no funeral, no farewell, and no clear moment when everyone recognizes that something has ended. A career changes direction. A purpose is interrupted. Work we believed mattered remains unfinished, along with questions that may never be answered.
Those endings can be difficult to accept because their consequences may reach beyond the person who experienced them. Others may have depended on that work or benefited from what it might have accomplished. We cannot know everything that would have followed, but we can recognize the value of giving worthwhile efforts a fair chance.
Perhaps part of finding peace is accepting that some chapters will remain unfinished. We can acknowledge what was lost, remember why it mattered, and carry that sense of purpose into whatever we still have the opportunity to do.
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Very true, Benjamin. There are always chapters remain unfinished coz life just shifted lanes. It’s compact and relatable! Happy weekend.
Hazel, I caught some more glimpses of your lovely, scenic homeplace. I know I tell you this often, but it reminds me so much of where I grew up—right down to that floppy-eared goat!
I’m almost convinced it’s related to one that once dragged me through a weed patch, determined to reach a larger pasture. We kept the goats out of there because of coyotes and bobcats. By the time I finally got that goat back where it belonged, I was fit to be tied—and probably should have tied the goat instead!
I smiled. Coz I so love petting their ears.🤩 I think we have similar childhood and some stage of adult life. Thank you, Benjamin. I’m so glad that you enjoyed my blogs or my simple life.
I appreciate you a lot.