the stages of grief

when I lost my dad in October, I described the feeling to my therapist as a once-still ocean floor struck by a torpedo—everything settled at the bottom suddenly thrown into the water around me. all the sea muck and dust that is my trauma was confronting me at once, and I was left somewhere in the middle of it, at the bottom of the ocean

there really is no word that can pinpoint what a loss like that feels like. but these stages of grief helped ground me back in reality during a time that felt—and sometimes still feels—surreal

there are so many big feelings in grief, and sometimes it just helps to have a chart to reference ❤️