GRIEF Poem: 10 Things I Didn’t Realize Before My Dad “Died”, by Taylor Lange

1. Knowing unconditional, sincere and selfless, love is actually a super power that you can lean on eternally.

2. Having someone who truly, deeply, instinctively understands you is like seeing bigfoot twice. Take pictures! Celebrate, appreciate, document and cherish it!

3. We’re never alone, even and especially, when it seriously seems like it. We always belong.

4. Grief evolves, just as we do.

5. When a heart breaks so emphatically, it doesn’t have to harden or recede into some sort of haunted
basement, guarded by a creepy, cryptic, cyanide breathing dragon shaped like the person you used to be,
before. Don’t get me wrong; sometimes that’s part of the journey. But, it can, also, if we’re brave and
willing, break a heart wide open, and broaden it quite beautifully. You can see, feel and emanate levels of
tenderness for humanity that you didn’t know existed; it doesn’t have to be all about uncharted territories of pain, but you do have to actively, effortfully choose positivity (more than once or twice).

6. The songs that get stuck in our heads are almost never a coincidence. Most “coincidences” aren’t coincidences.

7. Someone who loves you, like the love mentioned in #1, will never stop trying to connect with you, even
and especially after their “death”. Their physical body might “die”, but their consciousness expands,
profoundly. Talk to them, write to them, think about your lost loved one(s), and know they’re there. Ask
them to prove it, with specifics, then be present and patient.

8. Singing, dancing, laughing, meditating, anything that raises your frequency, can help you connect with your loved one(s) in spirit. Don’t just protect your peace, create and care for your joy, with ferocity.

9. It’s so true that people who heal from deep, soul-shifting types of loss have a particular type of spark about them. They’re brave; they live fully; they vibrate at a higher frequency. They have the most noticeably
bright, true compassion and splendor.

10. Grief can also be a gift, if you’re able to trudge through it and allow it to keep changing you.