GRIEF

Grief is in two parts. The first is loss.                                  
The second is the remaking of life.
 - Anne Roiphe

I have always loved graveyards as they have a peaceful atmosphere. This week I dropped off my son at the diving school, just around the corner is the graveyard where my grandparents were buried.

It was a sunny day and I was so surprised that the grave of my grandparents felt so familiar, although since I am back in Belgium, I did not have the chance to go visit. While I cleaned the grave, watered the flowers, I sat there for some time feeling really lonely and content at the same time.

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While sitting there, looking at their grave, I felt grief for the loss of two beautiful souls and at the same time I felt so grateful for the time we had together. And I felt the pain and grief over so many things I lost or left behind. I realized that we are just here temporally and I felt a deep sense of gratefulness for all those lovely moments in my life.

 I realized that grief is a form of praise about something you' ve lost and is no longer with you. It is the same when I feel grief over the places I've lived and the people, the animals, the trees, the flowers I left behind, I grieve for that because I miss it all. And by grieving over these lost places I praise those events in my life. And while I was sitting there, I knew I loved the things I left behind and I realized that I also love the things I got now.

Grieving is an important skill to have. Grieving allows you to dive deep. Grieving is better than denying or ignoring pain and sadness. Take time to grieve also over the small things you've lost because they are praises for the things you love. We only grief when we lose people or things we love or matter greatly to us. So in that sense grieving is actually praising the richness of our lives.

It is good to miss things and people; it means you care for them.

What do you miss?

Text: Sarah Neirinckx
Illustrations:  Marion Bolognesi and Vicky Alvarez