You might say grief is the price you pay for loving something or someone, but it is also a privilege, because it is what allows authentic beauty—which isn’t always pretty, but is always truthful—to find its way through you. And this beauty medicine is what the world needs most to heal.

But grief plays an essential role in our coming undone from previous attachments. It is the necessary current we need to carry us into our next becoming. Without it, we may remain stuck in that area of our life, which can limit the whole spectrum of our feeling alive.

No one is going back to their previous life after losing a loved one. Life is messy, chaotic, and difficult after loss. Grieving is a profound and complicated road, often for the long haul. Yes, there’s support. Yes, there are proven care practices that can be employed. But life for the bereaved has changed, irrevocably. Integrating this change inv

Yet we can attend to such wounds. We can learn to hold space for the presence of shadow and sorrow. Learning how to live with the pain of my mother’s illness and her subsequent absence has informed my life’s work with both the living and the dying. If I am wise and capable enough to skillfully integrate the painful emotions stirred by her loss, I c