This is my friend Greif

This is my friend, Grief.

I know her well.

She shows up uninvited.

Sometimes she enters soft and quiet, other times loud, heavy, and impossible to ignore.

She meets me in the stillness of early morning,

and she hides in laughter, too. Always reminding me of who’s missing.

She is the third wheel to my friend joy,

always sitting just behind the scenes,

never letting me forget the cost of love.

Her best friends are Nostalgia and Sadness.

Together, they take me to other places and times,

to birthdays no longer celebrated,

to voices I can still hear in my head, but will never sing in this world again.

They take me to hands I once held and echoes of laughter once shared. 

Grief used to terrify me.

She came in like a storm,

and I would resist, pretending I was fine,

distracting myself, and staying busy.

But now, I’ve learned to let her in she is the evidence of what once was and good times that have been. 

I’ve made peace with her shadow.

She no longer robs me of my time with joy;

instead, she colors it,

makes it deeper, richer, more real.

Because of her, I love harder and a whole lot more. 

She reminds me that my heart is capable of deep feeling, and that’s a gift too, even when it aches.

This is my friend, Grief.

She is uninvited but not unwelcome.

Fierce, faithful, and oddly gentle when I need her most.

And while I’ve come to know her well,

I still hope with everything in me

that she never becomes close to you.