I Didn’t Know That Grief Doesn’t Flow Automatically

My Dad died just over a year ago. A year of anniversaries and holidays, each occasion gaping with his absence. A full complement of seasons has presented itself; the southern hemisphere winter providing a chilling reminder of his last days with us. I’ve heard it said that you need a year to take its course before you can start dealing with the forever that’s ahead. As though you will be brought back to the starting point of your grief transformed, fortified by fresh new perspective on your pain. Accordingly, a year is surely ample time for grief to roam, meander and run riot; to expand to fill the available space. Time to feel the feelings, wrestle them and send them on their way. But what if grief doesn’t just happen? What if there is no room for your grief to show up and stomp around? We hear plenty about the endless permutations of grief. It has distinct stages but we longer expect them to be linear. There is no right or wrong way to experience it. You need to give yourself time to grieve in your own way. I assumed grief would come for me and I would feel the full force of it like a tap turning on. But no-one told me grief wasn’t automatic; that there might be other forces blocking its flow. <a href="https://jael999.medium.com/i-didnt-know-that-grief-doesn-t-flow-automatically-9f07b5b6610f">Website</a>