Grief
But while it’s good and healthy for grief to eventually fade, the bond does not. Love does not. Memory does not. And each of them should not.
Pedro Tofua • Returning to Center: Passages for Reconnecting with the Spirit, Changing the World, and Becoming Who You're Meant to Be
Rumi’s philosophy: to love is already to accept loss; to grieve is to remain faithful to that acceptance:
Whiteboard Journal • Rehearsing Our Loved One’s Death Might Be the Way to Go
“To remember somebody means to put them back together and to hold them within ourselves. As everybody knows—or will come to know—people who you can’t live without die, and you keep living. But once they’re dead, they can be with us all the time.”
Suleika Jaouad • The Book of Alchemy: A guide to the art of journalling
This isn’t about longing. It’s about recognition that even in distance, even in erasure, something remains. Not love. Not grief. Just... presence, suspended. A ghost made of nothing but time and memory.
the intimacy of never talking again
Understood this way, then, the ongoing relationship with the gone is a lavishment to other loves, for it has made us exactly who we are — the person doing the loving, the person being loved, the mapmaker of present and possible worlds. O’Connor offers neural affirmation for this poetic aspiration:
Maria Popova • Your Brain on Grief, Your Heart on Healing
Grief is the honour we pay to that which is dear to us.
Toko-pa Turner • Belonging: Remembering Ourselves home
Grief is not just an emotion—it’s an unraveling, a space where something once lived but is now gone. It carves through you, leaving a hollow ache where love once resided. In the beginning, it feels unbearable, like a wound that will never close. But over time, the raw edges begin to mend. The pain softens, but the imprint remains—a quiet reminder
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