Grief is an individual experience –

from person to person and from loss to loss

Just as your relationship with your loved one was unique, your grief won’t be exactly like anyone else’s. In your lifetime, you may also find you don’t have two grieving experiences that are the same. Grief is personal; six inches from your face kind of personal and that’s OK.

Feel what you feel –

don’t worry about stages, timelines or closure

I wish I could give you a list of each and every stage or emotion you will go through and in what order. I can’t; no one can. Your mind is likely crowded with thoughts. Am I doing this right? When will grief end? Will it ever end? Why can’t I stop crying? Why can’t I cry at all? Why is my grief making me fat? Will I ever feel like eating again? When will I have closure and what the heck is that anyway? The list goes on and on.

You don’t get over a significant loss, you get through it and it informs who you are. You get to decide what you want to take away from the experience. But know this: life can be good again.

Love lives on –

you carry it throughout your life

I know what it’s like to experience tremendous loss, grieve deeply, move through it and build a different life. Memories, even the hard ones, are a legacy. The hard ones especially.

These days my grief work involves grief practitioner education at The Creative Grief Studio, where we train coaches, therapists, hospice workers, and others to offer creative, grounded grief support. If you are a practitioner or thinking about becoming one, the Creative Grief Support Certification is a good place to start. I also write regularly about grief and practice on the CGS Substack