Learning to Live without Grief

Learning to live without grief is a lot harder than taking off an old coat. It takes time to peel the layers and slowly meet the vibrant colours that start to paint the world around you. I just thought of the movie Pleasantville where their monochrome world slowly turns bright, startling them because a monochrome world is all they know. Living life in a survival mode paradigm has the world around you moving quickly at all times. Unprocessed emotions from deaths, loss, relationship breakdowns, and other emotional upheaval lay stagnant and dormant inside with no room to be met and released. Instead they stack and melt into each other until they have no place to go.

Jolly has chosen the path to meet and release her grief and because of that has been invited into a world of colour. Excitement is shaken into her and things feel unusual in this space. Here she is guided into the back entrance of the bakery before opening time. There is something inside calling her, so she follows it and is surprised at what pulls her in. Her appreciation starts to grow for the simple things that recycle life and literally breath back into us, and because of this shift, is drawn to different shades of colour opening her senses to a new kind of energy.

I observed that we work to be happy and ok, but when we are there it feels foreign or undeserving. I learned through myself and others that having an awareness that it is ok to put on a new coat is a positive first step out of grief. It gives yourself permission to grow and see the world around you change. I like to think of humans as endless waves, each one holds an essence of ourself that we have the privilege of meeting. Some are grey and that’s ok, but most have colour if you allow them to shine.