I sat here for nearly 30 minutes trying to find an appropriate quote for grief and loss, and nothing worked.
Some quotes had elements that felt right, but all of them were just, off.
Nothing fit the emotions I know comes with losing someone you love.
I think I've known this all along, but in that moment I realized words don't suffice.
Sadness doesn't begin to touch the emotion we feel.
Pain isn't enough to describe what happens when you know you'll never see them again.
Honestly, the words grief and loss are like feathers touching your face in comparison to reality.
In mere seconds the light in your life darkens.
The universe punches a hole through your heart, but you don't die.
Your reality turns into this huge black hole, threatening to pull you in and never let go.
And as provocative as those statements are, they pale in comparison to how we really feel.
Those left behind desperately try to stay. To keep breathing, to keep living.
Even though a black room with a bed feels like home.
Those close to the people left behind feel useless.
As human beings, we aren't wired to sit and do nothing.
We constantly have this need to be helpful, to make things better.
But little to nothing can make it better. At least not in the beginning.
The intensity of the pain can be uncomfortable, and we stand there silent because what could we ever say to ease that look of anguish?
Unfortunately, there is no rule book to grief and loss.
There's no formula we can use to work our way through the stages or to help those who have lost feel better.
In my experience, meeting people where they are is the best thing you can do.
Meeting yourself where you are, is the best thing you can do.
Give yourself the permission to feel.
Even if it's only for moments at a time, because work and kids are waiting.
Twenty years can go by and it still takes your breath away.
That immediately feels wrong because we are so used to growing and evolving, changing.
Have patience with yourself.
Grief isn't something that goes away because your love for that person doesn't die when they do.
Grief shifts and changes over time.
And mercifully, becomes something we can endure.
Over time, the tears you cry soak into your ground.
And Winter gives way to Spring.