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Let the tears come and they will pass.

Be compassionate to yourself and to others at times of grief.

Grief is something every human will experience at some point in their life. It may emerge after losing a parent, sibling, friend, child, or pet. Grief can also come from things that feel harder to acknowledge. It might be the disappointment of yet another negative pregnancy test while you’re trying for a baby. It might be a breakup of a relationship that you’d hoped would lead to something more long-term. It might be the loss of a job or another significant life change. Sometimes the grief we struggle with is for the loss of an imagined future, even when not much has happened in the present yet.

When my mother died, I remember being able to observe the sadness, tears, fatigue and all the other emotional and physiological symptoms come and go. My job was to ride the waves.

For the first few days, I was, understandably, a wreck. I cried at random times and struggled to focus on what I needed to do. Which is particularly hard because there are so many jobs that need to be done and decisions that need to be made when someone dies.

After a few days, though, I noticed a shift. My tears felt less random. They would show up whenever I thought about Mum but less often........

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