Wading through loss

Ever been going through the motions of a normal day and out of the blue get gobsmacked by a particularly visceral memory? Picture a worker in business attire, on the morning commute just like any other weekday. Flipping through the radio stations to a favorite tune, she gets transported to a ten-year-old memory when a loved one took a last breath. With detached curiosity, fellow commuters notice the driver’s silent sobs through the distance of their car windows.

With love eventually comes loss. It’s an inevitable, universal human experience. Grief hits everyone in different ways, from denial in the bottom of a Jack Daniels bottle to the distraction of workaholism. Time tends to lessen the need for these kinds of coping mechanisms, but each subsequent hurt compounds the last and can open up all of the old wounds.

There are ways to heal.

• Acknowledge the pain
• Nurture self-compassion
• Commiserate with others
• Remember the joys
• Communicate the experience
• Connect to the sacred
• Embrace each day

In the end, our scars serve as reminders that we are stronger than whatever tries to hurt us.

“Grief does not change you... It reveals you.”
― John Green