Grief is painful and it is persistent.
It sits beside you while you answer emails. It rides along in the car. It waits until the house is quiet and still.
We treat grief like it is a problem to solve. Something to fix. Something to outwork or outthink.
But grief isn’t something to escape or fix. And it doesn’t mean something is wrong.
I remember Vision’s quote to Wanda in Wandavision:
“What is grief, if not love persevering?”
And isn’t it the truth. (We find wisdom in odd places sometimes, don’t we?)
It doesn’t make it hurt less of course, but it’s important to acknowledge that the pain is there because something truly mattered.
We grieve people.
Pets.
Jobs.
Old versions of ourselves.
Futures we imagined.
And grief doesn’t always just look like tears.
Sometimes it looks like irritability. Like diving into distractions in order to escape. Like wanting to quit everything.
But if grief is love persevering, then the ache is not the enemy. It is evidence.
It mean something.
They mattered.
You cared.
Instead of trying to outrun it, consider letting go of the idea that you need to avoid it.
Sit with it long enough to understand what it is teaching you. What did this person, season, or experience show you about what you value? What does the ache reveal about who you are?
Grief can clarify.
It can remind you what you want more of. What you never want to take for granted again. What is worth protecting.
You do not have to enjoy the pain…and you won’t. But if you’re willing to learn from it, it becomes something much more valuable.
And learning from it is a quiet way of letting love keep doing its work.
Yours in Simplicity,
Jimmy