What Grief has taught me is that you’re never ready for its arrival.
Grief is more than a human heart can bear.
You never get over it, but somehow you move forward.
The only way forward is through it.
Grief is intimate. For me, sharing certain aspects of it seems wrong because it is now connected to the deepest part of who I am.
Grief strips away any part of you that cares what others think…
And although grief has ripped me apart like nothing else has in life, it has also been my teacher.
It has taught me to hold a breaking heart full of sorrow and a heart full of joy simultaneously.
It has taught me to laugh through tears.
It has introduced me to the deepest kind of friendships. It the kind of friendship that meets you at a bedside, or catches you as you run away, or finds you curled up in a hospital hallway.
It has taught my to hold on for dear life the examples of those who’ve experienced grief before me. And hold on for dear life for the ones recently acquainted with grief behind me.
It has taught me to live presently in the moment because there is only enough grace for today.
It has taught me to slow down, to take a moment to appreciate people and nature.
It has taught me to give as much as I have today because tomorrow is not promised.
It has taught me to speak kind words to everyone I meet because they might be hidding their own grief as well.
So although I met grief kicking and screaming, cussing and flailing… It has been one of my most hated companions and one of my greatest teachers.
I never wanted it to come, but I refuse to see it wasted.
