Why put that front and center? Because it is! Grief and sadness are part of life, the other side of joy and happiness. Often they are the path on which we walk, the stepping stones towards even more meaningful, fulsome, wholehearted living.

So I put it front and center not as a promotion, but as permission. Permission to acknowledge it, see it and feel it. Permission to take the time to know our grief. To sit with it. Permission to not put on a “brave face” or a “stiff upper lip”. Permission to seek support, to find a place where we are held in a safe space for as long as we need.

In creating a safe space we build a container where our grief can be held with love, without fear, without judgement or shame. A space where we can gently unpack it, at our own pace, examining each piece to the degree we want or need to. Observing what comes up, keeping or discarding what we choose, building our way forward.

By inviting the lessons of our losses into our lives, by lovingly choosing what we keep and what we discard we are actively engaging in charting our course, in freeing ourselves from victim consciousness.

We acknowledge the sadness. We choose to be with it, rather than bury it. We find our resilience in allowing it to be part of us, part of our past our present and our future, part of our sadness, part of our joy. We allow ourselves to become all that we are and all that we can be. Happy and sad together. Each one a reflection of the other on our journey.