It has been 6 months since the official publishing of our book, Beautiful Grief by Tony Rose

You might wonder why it has taken six months from the publishing of Beautiful Grief for us to start this blog.

One of the lessons we learned from the death of Jonny is this: Grieving takes as long as it takes. In fact, no one ever gets over the death of a loved one. Grief goes on forever. There is no timeline. The milestones in a journey happen when they happen.

The place that your grief owns inside of you moves you from a place of primacy to a place that is a more permanent home. That place, for some, is one that allows them to be in the world without ³the loss² being the first filter through which they perceive the current reality.

Others, though, have not moved to that place. For them, grief becomes the reality. It is a filter that turns life into a dark shadow of what it might be.

And far be it for us to tell them that they are not grieving quickly enough or that they are somehow not grieving correctly. A person who has suffered a loss need not rush into an understanding that the world does not stop because a loved one has died‹and those of us surrounding the grieving need not push them toward a different experience.

If your life is darkened by the constant reminder of your grief, know that the people around you see that you are sad. We care, but we must go on living our lives in spite of the loss. This is not a judgment or a dismissal, but rather a fact. We all have different experiences.

Time passes one way or another, six months, a year, or five years.

I encourage you to give yourself permission to peek on the other side of grief every once in a while, and only if you are so inclined. You might see some brightness as opposed to the darkness you have assumed would stay with you always.

Please share your thought about this, or you own story of grief on this site. Our grief is individual, but we are all in this together.