This might surprise you, but you can’t rush grief.
It’s a process, almost as painful and tedious as learning algebra.
The issue is that if you don’t go through the process, it can – and will – stunt you.
Good-grief, I know people that never healed from broken relationships of 40 years ago.
This avoidance can lead to isolation.
And with an attitude like that, you are likely to end up bitter and tired.
Plus, I mean, you never will learn algebra.
All those years I fell for the great palace lie that grief should be gotten over as quickly as possible and as privately. But what I’ve discovered since is that the lifelong fear of grief keeps us in a barren, isolated place and that only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it.
-Anne Lamott, Traveling Mercies
