What grief doesn't tell you

Grief is often described as a stage you pass through, but most people who have lived with it will tell you something quieter: it doesn't end, it just learns to sit differently. Some mornings it is loud. Others it is a shape in the corner of the room you've simply gotten used to. There is no wrong way to carry it, and no deadline by which you should be done. If today is heavy, that is not a setback. It is just grief, being grief.