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The bright side of loss

Blaire is a three piece alternative rock band from Australia’s Gold Coast whose latest single “Mimer” has just been released. In this heartfelt piece, frontman Ben Stagg details his experience with loss.

Have you ever lost something? A toy, a friend, a loved one, a place – anything you were connected to? We all do at some point in our lives. We move away, we meet new people and we lose those around us. We all have to deal with the beast that is losing something we would never want to.

In my experience, the hardship of loss has always been outweighed by the positive outcomes – no matter how painful. This outlook is typically depicted as extremely difficult to achieve, unthinkable even. Think about friends going through break-ups, mates losing their jobs, your favourite venue being shut down – people seem to cop it hard and can’t seem to see a way around it.

I guess the word I’m thinking about here is opportunity. I believe there is always opportunity somewhere, no matter the situation. Like I said, this can be one of the hardest things to try and think about – but with enough will power and self-belief, it will become habit. Find a new venue. Find a new gig. Buy a dog. Tell someone to fuck off. Stop thinking, and just do.

We know how we’re born, we know how the Earth got here, we know a lot of things. But for a lot of these, there is no answer to why. This can be seen as, anything being an answer – the concept of writing your own why.

I recently lost my mother, which has by far been the hardest thing to deal with in my 24 years of living. I didn’t know what to do, what to think, how to feel – it just sort of happened. I have never spent so much time with family and friends, I have never felt so alive – and I have never thought it more important to live life with every resource you can possibly muster, and enjoy everything this life has to offer – spending it in whatever way you damn please. We’re all on this planet for whatever reason, we may as well have a good time.