Any loss can trigger grief and all loss begins a three-part process of transition. Knowing how to navigate these transitions is key to creating a bigger, better next chapter.

We all face multiple, major transitions throughout our lives, times when our identities dissolve and we have to re-form and become someone new. The transitions can be delightful or they can be wrenching. Sometimes, they are both. Here’s how to survive the passage.

A cell phone rang, and I watched in stunned disbelief as one of the mourners (and I use that term loosely) took the call. In an audible voice he engaged in a five minute conversation, graveside. I still have a bruise on my jaw where it dropped and hit the ground.