Grief a Few Words

Grief is hard to comprehend, there are many well intentioned words that attempt to appease it and far too many clichés, or offers of advice which all too often only serve to create even more distance and isolation from what was real.

Grief cannot be dismissed or put on hold, grief cannot be fixed, it does not fit in a box or respond in an appropriate way. Grief is not a problem to be solved. Grief is real, it is unpredictable, and overwhelming, it is intense and powerful; grief needs to find expression, to have a voice, to be heard.

Grief forges its own path, taking us in a different direction to the one we perhaps thought we’d walk. Grief is full of contradiction, full of anger and love and fear and laughter and tears, of strength and weakness, causing us to run away and to run home, to push others aside and to draw them close.

Grief journeys with us, sometimes loudly and sometimes in silence, sometimes holding us back, sometimes driving us on until over time it releases its grip a little, becoming softer, more malleable, reminding us more gently of those memories and moments that brought us to this place.

Grief will always have a part to play, and as we find a way to allow grief to live alongside us, we begin to rediscover a life that feels authentic to who we now are. It is from this place that we are equipped to use our grief as a force for good because grief is simply an expression of love and love holds all things, even death.

By Deb Bridges (Director, Writer and Life Coach for Prodigal Collective)