By Rebecka Crandall
Grief doesn’t always arrive with funerals and flowers. More often, it lives in life’s transitions, when a version of the future we imagined dissolves into something unrecognizable. It shows up when a relationship ends, when we leave a job we once cared deeply about, or when our health shifts and our body or mind no longer feels familiar. Sometimes, it exists in the quiet overwhelm of witnessing a world in turmoil or feeling powerless in the face of the unknown. These experiences can spark grief, though we don’t always name them as such.
Between 2021 and 2024, my life shifted drastically. I left a career I once imagined retiring in, ended a long-term relationship, lost two grandparents and watched my spiritual beliefs reshape in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Yet within the sorrow, there were moments of deep love, connection and unexpected beauty. Love and grief are not opposites; they are intimately entwined.
Within mourning what is lost, we are often invited to rediscover a sense of purpose, to see ourselves and the world anew. Grief can bring us back to what we truly care about. In the heart of heavy experiences, it can help to look for traces of beauty, the potential for growth — and the reminder that this too shall pass. When that feels impossible, it’s just as important to give ourselves permission to sit in the mud of our emotions.
The next time you find yourself on a difficult path, take a deep breath and trust that even the most challenging detours can lead to unexpected beauty, while revealing strengths and capacities you never knew you had. When we meet our grief with compassion, it softens; over time, it becomes something we grow from. Just like everything else in life, grief will change and it will morph into something meaningful over time.
Like the way leaves fall each autumn to make space for new growth, our lives are marked by cycles of change, loss and renewal. These seasons of transition, however painful, hold the potential to reshape us in profound ways.
Rebecka Crandall is a BRAVA 2022 Woman to Watch, certified grief support specialist and recovery coach with a background in community-based work.
