Grief is a circle, not a straight line.

As I write this, I am traveling, heading to the funeral home, for the third visitation I will attend this week. I am reminded that grief can come upon us at anytime. It needs no invitation.

This week also brought news of more death and tragedy, in the form of suicide. Seeing the survivors left behind after such a loss reminds me of the devastation that grief brings when it enters our lives. The pain is apparent in their faces. Their bodies become knotted with the weight of the stress they carry.

It is important to remember, there is no one size fits all way to grieve. Every loss is different. Every pain is different. Often we tend to think grief is a process, something we go through, step-by-step. This is a falsehood! Grief is cyclical. We can bounce in and out of feelings.

Don’t compare your grief to others. You are doing the process perfectly, for you.