I’m so grateful that I went to Prague to see my baby girl. Got home Friday at midnight. My checked bag is lost in transit between Prague and Denver. United says they’re tracing it but with no results yet.

Feeling tired and jet lagged and somehow sad. I think it’s the exhaustion of the trip hitting me – but all I want to do is get in bed and cry for my lost Eileen Fisher sweaters, new down jacket and the yellow silk scarf that Sarah brought me from Italy years ago.

I know that my grief really comes from a pool of losses much greater than a scarf or down jacket. But thinking of my lost suitcase brings up this old sadness like a tidal wave – for a departed husband, girlfriend, father, kitties and ironically for my beautiful children who are all grown up and doing so well on their own.

Funny how grief is so easily tapped into by the smallest of losses. I’ll let myself cry it out today and when I feel stronger I’ll pray for courage and guidance and move forward.

But today the tidal wave is winning and I’m floundering in the floodwaters. This is a price we pay for being human and having the capacity to love deeply. I’ll pay it gladly. Because love is all there is and I’m so grateful to know that…

By Sue Frederick, author of Bridges to Heaven: True Stories of Loved Ones on the Other Side