Scripture admonishes us to hold lightly to the things of this world. (1 Corinthians 7:29-31). Good advice as we enter the sixth month of the international pandemic that has turned our world upside down.
That being said, gains are often the products of losses and endings are often times necessary for true growth to occur.
For example, Derek Amato is an American composer and pianist who received a head injury on October 27, 2006, and subsequently became a musical savant, the only known musical savant to develop a savant syndrome through a brain injury.
Or the story of a promising, virtuoso violinist, Maya Shankar, a student of Itzhak Perlman who lost the use of her left hand resulting in her having to forgo a promising career in music. As devastating as that was for her, Maya ended up earning a Rhodes Scholarship and serving as senior adviser for social and behavioral sciences to the White House Office of Science and Technology. Today she holds the position of Head of Behavioral Insights at Google.
While certainly, losses can be devastating, more often than not even the most traumatic ones also offer a pathway to opportunities never imagined.