There is no escaping it.  We all go through it at some point in our lives. Some of us go through loss earlier than others, so we’re introduced to grief at an earlier point on our journey.  No matter when, it is painful.

I was introduced to a woman over the weekend who is suffocating in her grief.

Her loss, the death of a parent, has enveloped her totally.  We took a long walk and she talked about her lack of motivation.  She stopped working.  She doesn’t exercise any more.

I could tell just by looking at her, that she’s not sleeping and she’s probably not eating well either.  She’s sad…so sad.  The world has turned gray.

As we turned corners and covered the neighborhood, slowly she opened up and the sadness poured out of her.  I felt like she hadn’t exhaled in months.

After convincing her that she needs to start living again and stop dwelling on what’s been taken from her life, her clouds parted, in a manner of speaking…

“I used to be a sassy girl,” she said with a faint smile.

I told her to go find her “sassy” because it’s still in there, it’s just been covered by so much “sad.”