Grief is a beast that has no timeline, and no instruction manual.

It's this heavy weight that often sneaks up on us. It’s not always the loud kind of sorrow we expect. Sometimes, it’s quiet, creeping in during the mundane moments of life, when we least expect it, turning the ordinary into something filled with longing, with absence.

Loss is something we all experience at some point. Whether it’s the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or even the loss of a dream or vision for our life, grief comes knocking when we’re least prepared for it. And when it arrives, it doesn’t always make itself known right away. Sometimes it arrives as a dull ache that doesn’t have words. Other times, it’s like a heavy blanket that pulls you deeper into a place of emptiness.

I want you to know that grief is not something to be “fixed.” It’s something you learn to carry, and it’s something you learn to sit with. Grief is complicated. It can show up as deep sadness, but it can also manifest as anger, confusion, relief, or even guilt. You may feel one emotion strongly for a while and then suddenly feel another, and that can make you question what you’re going through. You may even feel like you’re doing something wrong because your grief doesn’t look like how you think it should.

The truth is, grief doesn’t follow a set path. There’s no “right” way to grieve. What you’re feeling is valid. If you’ve experienced a loss, whether big or small, your grief is real, and it’s okay to feel it however it shows up for you.

Grief often feels isolating. We live in a world that expects people to get over their losses quickly, to move on with life as if nothing happened. But that’s not how grief works. Grief can be messy. It can feel like it’s swallowing you whole, like it’s suffocating you, and that’s okay. It doesn’t make you weak, or fragile, or broken. It makes you human.

If you’re in the thick of grief right now, know that you don’t need to carry it alone. If the pain feels too much to bear, reaching out for help isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s a sign of strength. I know that finding your way through grief can feel impossible at times. It can feel like you’re walking through life in a fog, unable to see the way forward. But it’s in those quiet moments that you begin to process and heal, bit by bit.