This sign greets me as I exit the parking garage at the train station at Alewife. It's been there for months--maybe even a year. Every time I pass it, my mind reads it as "Caution, grief around the corner." I wonder who sprayed the word onto the sign, what grief is pocketed away in the graffitier's heart. (Okay, maybe his street tag is "grief" but still.) Memento mori paintings remind us that we, too, must die--this sign serves a similar purpose for me. After all, grief (for any one of us) could be just around the corner.

Strangely this doesn't really depress me. It gives me resolve to enjoy today, to be ready for what life brings. That whole carpe diem thing.

This has all been especially on my mind as I have read sweet|salty lately. Kate's a vivid, incredible writer + her blog is a joy to read. Recently her life has collided with grief and she has blogged about her experience honestly and exquisitely. As a reader, I feel compelled to check in on her, not in a rubber-necking-on-the-freeway kind of way but as a gesture of hope and concern. Selfishly, I learn from her + hope I would be able to greet grief with similar moxy and grace. It's what we take away from great literature--that chance to practice + experience through someone else's story--but in blogland we get to also give support and offer sympathy to the players who are in the thick of things. Remarkable.