Robert Frost said, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life…it goes on”.

The problem is that after someone you love dies, life does go on, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. When you’re submerged in grief, it doesn’t seem like you could ever possibly move on and learn to live without that person.

The last thought in your mind is that life is ever going to go on, and that things are ever going to be better. The truth is, it never really gets easy, but instead, you just start to learn to adjust to this new life. Then you have to figure out how to move forward and survive.

Not all at once does this happen, but slowly. Slowly you start to pick up the pieces of your broken world and put them together in a way that starts to give you some purpose and meaning again. One day, you find yourself crying less than the day before. Another day, you even find yourself laughing, smiling and finding genuine joy and happiness in daily life. One day, the pain has subsided more than you ever could have imagined.

Eventually…you’re genuinely living life again.

Here’s the thing…life doesn’t give you an option when the person you love is taken from you. You don’t get to pick and choose who leaves your life…when and how it’s going to affect you. One day, your world gets flipped upside down and you have to figure out how to continue on.

After a while, everyone around you goes back to their own life. Life continues to move on and it feels like yours is at a standstill…whether you like it or not. People stop asking about your less. You stop being everyone’s first priority and you go back to being just another person with another sad story.

Then you start to realize that you don’t have any other choice but to carry on too. Everyone else is doing it. It’s time that you go back to work. You have to start leaving the house again. You have to get dressed and go out and do all the things life demands of you.

You have to live again.

Let’s be honest…what other choice do you have?

What would your person want for you? Would your loved one want you sitting in the house, crying all day while you could be out and living your life? I think they wouldn’t want to see you like this. It just wouldn’t make them happy.

Don’t you agree?

Life goes on…and this includes your life. Yes, the person you love died, but you’re still here. Yes, it’s going to suck without the person you love by your side, but the world still holds all the opportunities, experiences, and most of all love, that it has to offer you.

You’re still living and have every chance to make the rest of your life whatever you want to make it.

Do it for them…but also make sure to do it for yourself.

Gary Sturgis – “Surviving Grief”