For those who might ask “What does that even mean?”, this is what I’m reading that triggered the question: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transformative-experience/
Recent can mean the most recent you can remember, even if it was years ago. Interested in what y’all might say.
Genuine sorrow hurts, but my god if it isn’t a fascinating and powerful state. It’s 100% transformative, in a good way, if you allow it to be. Sorrow and the journey back, imo, is a vital trial in human development, all the more interesting because it’s truly universal. The risk is so hardening yourself against pain that it’s detrimental, the prize is a deeper capacity for empathy.
To love, and to lose, and to find your way back to love again - it doesn’t feel this way in the slough of despond*, but on the other end and with some time it’s a beautiful thing.
(*General statement - if you want to think more on this whole transformative experience thing in general, you could do worse than reading The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. If you’re vehemently anti-Christian you’ll need to replace Yahweh, Sky Wizard ™ with your own conceptions, but the allegory itself still provides some palatable food for thought)