Losing someone you love may seem like a curse at first, like nothing good can come out of it because the world suddenly feels different, maybe even pointless. Everything suddenly feels irrelevant and for a few weeks or months, you can feel dead inside.
But after the initial shock has passed, you somehow feel a sense of inner peace because suddenly, you see what matters most. It’s in that stillness that you start realizing things you never thought of before. It’s in that stillness that you start forgiving again, loving again and living life in a way that fulfills you again. It’s in that stillness that you begin to remember that life is too short and you start living life by your own rules.
It makes you ask the biggest questions and in searching for answers, you may discover your own spiritual awakening or a new way to heal. Maybe you start believing more in your intuition, following your heart more often or looking at the ‘signs’ sent to you by God more clearly. Maybe grief doesn’t close the door, maybe it opens one to a world where you’re more loving, more compassionate, more mindful and less worried about how things will unfold.
Maybe it opens the door to a world where you surrender to your fate more than question it. Maybe it opens the door to a world where you let go of trying to control or figure everything out, and instead live with the quiet confidence that somehow, everything will be okay.
And perhaps that’s the deepest gift grief gives: it finally strips away the illusion that we are in control, replacing it with the unshakable truth that we are guided by something greater than ourselves. It changes the way you love. You start cherishing the people in your life more deeply, because you realize how quickly time can take someone away. You handle conflict with a softer heart, pain with more grace and resentment with more understanding.
Maybe losing someone doesn’t always end with pain and heartbreak. Of course, the pain remains, but a new light emerges and sometimes that light inside of you shines brighter than it ever did before.
