Let Grief Be Loud.

When I first started writing about grief, I thought it would be too hard, but it turns out to be the easiest thing I’ve ever done. It has been so easy reaching into my soul and spilling my feelings. Whether people read the poems or I’m posting without results, writing about grief and putting it out into the world has been so healing. Though I’ll never heal, I’m thankful for that, because it means I’ll always have something to write about.

I thought maybe by now I’d get tired of writing about grief, but it turns out that’s not even completely true. There is so much to say about grief.

But more importantly, there are so many people out there who need a safe place to go—who need others that relate to them or simply need someone they can talk to. To simply just be.

To simply just grieve.

In the few years I’ve written about grief, I have learned that the world really does try to quiet those who are grieving. It doesn’t matter whether it was a human or a beloved pet. It doesn’t matter if it has been one week or one year. The world wants us to be quiet.

But you are supposed to be loud.

Your grief is supposed to be as loud as your love.

You are supposed to talk about them.

You are supposed to laugh over your funny memories.

You are supposed to cry and feel the hurt.

Grief exists because, unfortunately, we have to feel it.

So feel it.

Don’t hide it away.

Don’t keep it to yourself.

Your grief is yours to do with what you want.

And that is why I write about grief—not only to deal with my own emotions and pain, but to remind others that they are not alone on this endless journey. To remind them that even when it seems others around them have stopped talking or decided to shut their grief away, it doesn’t mean they have to.

Grief is the one emotion we all need someone with us to feel. But if we don’t have our closest people, there are always others out there in the world who are there for us. They relate to our pain and the loneliness, and in our grief we can do what humans were meant to do: be there for one another.

And so, in the midst of my own grief and emotional journey, I will continue trying to make a safe place for those who need it.

We may not understand each other’s grief completely, but we understand grief as a whole. And like a puzzle, when we come together, we can make something beautiful.

I will never stop writing about grief.

I will never stop reminding others that they are not alone.

More importantly, I will never let the world quiet my grief.

I will never let anyone make my grief feel invalid.

I will never let anyone put a time limit on my grief.

And I will always do what I can to show others that their grief can be as loud as they need it to be.