Grief is not on a schedule, but the world around us expect us to be. They are ready to see you move on, but you can’t.

I invite you to throw away your grief watch.

In this series, How To Cope With Grief, we have explored the importance of support people, the skill of naming emotions, and the skill of being curious. In this part of the series, I want to explore the practice of remembrance and the many forms it may take.

Welcome back for part 2 in the series of How to Cope With Grief. Previously, we explored the nature of grief that it is unique to every person and does not have a predictable path. Then we talked about the importance of finding a supportive person, whether imagined or real, and a supportive village; a safe group of people who get what you are going through because they are going through it too or have gone through it in the past.

Today, I want to explore what to do with the emotions of grief.

We all need a village at some point in our life. We all need community to get to the other side. I know this goes against our American worldview that dependency on others can be a positive thing. I also know finding supportive people can feel impossible in our incredibly isolated lives, but you are not alone.

In this part of the series, How To Cope With Grief, I want to explore the importance of community and support, essentially, a village on which to lean when things are hard.

Here we are in 2021 with the hope of a cure to this deadly, global virus. This pandemic has affected communities and individuals differently, but one thing has affected us all:

Loss.

None of us has escaped it.

As things start to reopen and we pick up the pieces to rebuild, we will each have our journey, individually and collectively, through grief.