The heaviness of grief

Things are so much better than they were for my family now that the kids are settled back into in-person school. That they are thriving seems like a miracle, and with my younger son just a few weeks away from being fully vaccinated, there is the sense that I can exhale just a little bit.

And yet, with the exhale comes the grief, multi-layered. Waves and waves of it, especially, ironically, at the weekend when there is more space for it.

It can be easy to numb ourselves through a variety of means, including throwing ourselves into work. The danger is that grief unnamed can come out sideways to exacerbate power differentials and systems of oppression.

Noticing and naming the things that are coming up - that level of self-awareness - is really important, and also the reality is that it's hard to do without support.

And if you're someone that's holding space for a lot of different people in a lot of different places, it can be hard to ask for or find support yourself.

If you're reading this, I bet you're stretched pretty thin these days. So my question to you is the question I've been grappling with myself - what would it look like to feel better resourced?

Banner photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

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