We need to talk about grief

We need to talk about grief.

We need to talk about death, and the fact that it happens.

We need to talk about relationships, and how they don’t go away even when someone dies.

We need to talk about the realities of loss, and the complexities inherent in planning a life for someone who never gets to live it.

We need to talk about funerals, and life insurance, and the details that have to be handled even when we’re grieving.

We need to talk about grief, and how people like to pretend it goes away at the end of the funeral.

We need to talk about relationships, and how grief and loss show us so much more than we want to know about those who should be closest to us.

Related: Miranda’s Blog: What Would you Rather Not Know?

We need to talk about grief-i-versaries, and how the body lives a calendar even if the mind doesn’t see it.

We need to talk about the full spectrum of the emotional experience, and how grief is so much more than “merely” sadness or any other single thing.

But most of all, we need to talk about grief—
—Without stigma
—Without an urge to be only positive
—Without avoidance, or hushed voices, or assumptions that this subject is for adult ears alone.

Because if you live long enough, every one of us will face grief,
And it doesn’t go away, even if we don’t talk about it.

Related Posts:

Graphics Blog: Refusing to Talk about Death; Death Isn’t Rumpelstiltskin
Graphics Blog: The Body Keeps a Calendar Separate from the Mind
Special Topics: Grief Positivity

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