An Ode to Grief and its transformative powers

Have you ever felt like everything around you was slowly starting to sink whilst you had nothing to hold on to? Has your night and day meshed into one seemingly incomprehensible nightmare where you were neither awake nor asleep?

Well, grief can do many things to a man but most often than not it creeps up like a shadow in the dark only to consume you entirely before you realise it. This anxious emotion has always felt like words that are stuck in your throat but cannot seem to find an outlet. It’s all the love that you want to put into this world but seemingly unseen forces stop you from doing so. It eventually gets collected in the corner of your eyes and the depths of your heart only to resurface at the most important time ever.

Grief can seem like a comforter to the afflicted when nothing goes your way but most importantly it breaks you down and creates a whole different personality from the ashes that are left behind. Once you’ve weathered this storm the past version seems like a completely different person and there isn’t any tangible way to measure the difference.


Whilst the process may be scary it also allows you to rebrand yourself, to introspect and realign your values to what you need rather than what you wanted in the days that have passed. Don’t worry I’m not going to glorify or invalidate your grief but just give you a gentle reminder that there is something beautiful waiting for you if only you can hold on for that much longer.

The days and nights may seem inconsequential but the day that you validate and sit with your distress is the time when they no longer hold you, prisoner. At that very instant you are set free from the shackles that bound you in the first place, releasing this heavy feeling that resides in your chest.

There is no phoenix without the ashes, there is no character without conflict and sometimes I wonder, would I even know what happiness looks like if I hadn’t been through that storm in the first place.

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