I am not sure if it is the best or the worst part of heartbreak to be grateful. To be thankful that someone crossed your path, touched you, showed you how things can be [but ultimately are no longer].
I think I have a bad habit of prolonging heartbreak because as long as I still feel it in some sense, it means that the thing is alive in its own way. We remain connected even through the simple replaying of memory.
To be thankful for what has passed means exactly that — that it, we, have passed. This to me is the essence of poignance, a delicate pain.