30 Ways to Take Care of Ourselves when we’re Grieving.
Last year, I wrote an article in a moment when I was grieving my grandfather.
He died 30 years ago — when I was three.
The thought of him throughout the years has brought both a feeling of deep love, a deep sense of the knowing of how much I loved him, along with immense sadness and pain. Just the thought of him for most of my life could make me cry.
A couple of months ago, I felt myself missing him again, feeling that same hollow ache of sadness, of longing, of loss. And I realized that it was around the same time of year that I’d written that article the year before. And then I realized what date it was. And I realized that it was around the day that he’d died.
In that moment, I understood that my subconscious, and my body, knew this date, knew I lost him around this time, even if this awareness was not actively in my conscious mind — even if I wasn’t actively walking around thinking about it.
This made me feel such tenderness, such compassion, for this part of me, for this part of my mind and heart that carry this — that love him, miss him, long for him, that feel pain from losing him.
Grief is a universal experience. We can grieve people, places, things. The ends of…
