When we experience a loss, we are shoved into total darkness and despair.  As the days and months go by it feels like the darkness lifts but the lights, unfortunately, are forever dimmed.  Loss changes your perspective on life.  Loss changes you and with it comes a never-ending process of grief. 

Grief does not always show up as intense as it did in the first few weeks and months.  It tends to take a little bit of a backseat sometimes but it is always there.  We tend to push our grief to the back of our minds as life needs to be at the forefront. Whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not, life keeps going and at some point, we need to catch up and keep going too.  There are moments when it seems as though grief is gone altogether.  In these moments though, it’s just in the background.  In other moments you are blatantly reminded of its presence just like a hard smack on the face or a punch in the tummy.

If we contextualize grief, we can appreciate that it makes sense that grief is never-ending because our love for our loved ones is never-ending.  If we understand that grief is a never-ending process, it will allow us to be more accepting of ourselves and our emotions and also more accepting of others in their grief process.  We are then able to be freer in our grief process which tends to be more helpful rather than denying ourselves the last right of showing love despite our loved one not being here. 

Be kind and gentle with yourselves always.  Grief can be an exceptionally taxing process both emotionally and physically.