In western culture, grief is pathologized. You can either be grieving too long or not enough. Well-meaning friends encourage you to move on, let go, and find closure. Maybe your grief isn’t even culturally recognized in the first place. It’s time to reclaim what it means to grieve. For in any change, either good or bad, there is a loss of something else. As the new year sets upon us, let’s take time to honor the grief we hold in our hearts. The grief of lost dreams and foiled plans, the deaths of our beloveds and the bittersweet beauty of life. Let’s sink into the depths of our souls, knowing that we will rise again, refreshed. Forever changed, and beautifully whole.

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