Loss and grief come in many forms, all of them real, all of them wrenching. My book, Grief Girl’s Guide, is here to help you with your grief.

It seems everyone I talk to is dealing with something serious and vexing. Maybe it's life at middle age. Maybe it's living in a toxic and stressful world. Maybe it's just the roll of the dice. I don’t know. But I do know that such levels of suffering provoke some serious contemplation.

I was very excited, at the beginning of this year, to welcome 2012. February would usher in the Year of the Dragon, an auspicious year, a year of power and dynamism. Having been born in a dragon year, I gleefully anticipated doubly good fortune with health, wealth, and a book deal raining down from the heavens.

It’s not who or what you love that matters; it is that you can and do love, actively, freely, fiercely. It is your deepest calling.