This series is a form of creative writing known as fan fiction. Detective Robert Goren is a regular character on the Dick Wolf television show, Law & Order: Criminal Intent. What follows is one longtime viewer's breath of life into an already popular character

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." ~Norman Cousins

That's very true. No one really knows exactly what happens after we die, of course we all have our own ideas - but to be sure, you have to have lived it. Sure there's a lot of near-death experiences to be read and compared but again, you just can't be sure what is real.

The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.

Think about it. The first thing lost is innocence. A child who no longer views every single person as equal because they've been introduced to racism, judgmental thinking, religious bias. There's something so pure about the way children see things. If you hand a toddler something new and sit beside them you really can explore it with them for the very first time. One of the biggest gifts babies give us is the chance to relearn everything that we can't possibly remember learning the first time around.

That purity and unbiased thinking only comes from small children. No matter how open-minded and accepting we are as adults, it's just not the same as not knowing how to judge others.

Trust is another things that we often lose. If you can't allow yourself to take the risk and really trust then you can't possibly be close to anyone. Losing trust leads to loneliness and that usually leads to a pessimistic attitude laced with rage and anger. You can't trust which pisses you off, then you're pissed at everyone you distrust. It just circles.

The loss of love. Everybody has lost at least one person that left them feeling broken. Once the pieces were gently put back together one was just missing. It never is found because it was in the hands of the person you lost. It doesn't matter if it's a bad breakup or a death, lost love still does the same thing to you. It changes you. You can either choose to heal and be more sure of what you really need or you can shut down, closing yourself off to the possibility of loving again. Really loving, just stepping beyond the fear and living in that moment without any hesitation. Not allowing love in is like not taking a drink of water. It's just vital to living rather than just existing.

Losing the will to live is one of the saddest things I've seen and in the past week I have seen it several times. No matter how awful everything may feel, there is always help. Always. There is always something good but you just have to be willing to want to see it. The good always outweighs the bad it just rarely ever feels that way.

It's really all in how you choose to see things. What you lose in life depends on how much you want to let die inside of you with each passing day.