Feeling Their Absence: A Stoic’s Guide To Mourning Those We’ve Lost
Seneca’s heartfelt letter to a mourning friend and what we can learn from it.
All of us will lose someone, just as all of us will be lost by someone else one day. It is a universal affliction that all of us shall face. The loss of someone we love.
When we experience the passing of a friend we held so dear, we feel as if we’ve lost an integral part of ourselves.
How are we to handle these times when they arise? All differ in their perception and handling of grief, but if there is one thing we may try, it is to make a study of all things — even things as melancholy as this. To understand how to come to terms with the necessary suffering of life.
One place I often turn to is the writings of those who came long before, whose words have remained relevant even through the centuries. One of such people is Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the Roman stoic philosopher, student of life, and by no means a stranger to pain and loss.
In his letter to his dear friend, Lucilius, Seneca offers his thoughts on mourning and loss, and how to find light even in this darkness. No stranger to the pains of life and the grief of departed friends, he writes so that his friend may handle it well, in a way that…
