A post on grief

When people think of the words grief and grieving, I think we all immediately think of the person who is sad and crying. But grief is more than that. Grief is remembering and not always in a sad way. It's the double-take you make when you see someone that looks just like them. It's the picture that pops up in your Facebook feed or that you come across in an album. It's the song that you remember listening to together. It's the last movie you saw either with the person or right before they left. Maybe it's something that happened right afterward that resonated with you so every time you hear it or see it, you think of them. It's the dream they creep into to let you know they are okay. It's the moment you make yourself vulnerable to a good cry which floods other memories until you can't remember why you started crying in the first place.

Grief is that place your loved one is now. However it wants to show itself. Happy, sad, or just a neutral memory. Invite it in. Spend some time with it, and then let it go until it's time again. As time goes on, you can let the memories come back without breaking apart each time. I think we try to protect ourselves and push memories away because they make us sad, but eventually they won't be sad memories any longer. They are all valid memories and grief doesn't have to be a sad word.