A Year Ago Today

A year ago today, my grandpa died. 

Just look at his smile of gold at my high school graduation

As I've looked at the calendar the past few weeks, I kept remembering that fact trying to understand what today would be like for me and my family. It's been a year. 

It's been a year of growing in learning to grieve. It's been a year of grieving - grieving the death of my grandpa, grieving things that will never be, grieving alongside others in different types of loss. 

A year ago, I clung to hope in the face of death. A year ago, I kept asking myself and others, "What do I do with this?" A year ago, I continually reminded myself that my hope is in the resurrection of Jesus and the promise of his return and the resurrection of the dead. 

A year ago, I admitted that it was okay to talk about my grandpa and his death for as long as I needed to. A year ago, I learned that there's no one way to grieve well. A year ago, I learned that my grief doesn't have to dominate everything in my life; that I can set it aside for a while - that I have to set it aside for a while. I can always come back to it when I'm ready again.

A year ago, I received my hope plant.

A year ago, my grandpa died. And my family is still grieving. We are all doing it differently, and that's okay. 

But Family, please know that you are not alone in your grief. You don't have to be alone in your grief. I love you. And we can have hope even while we grieve. But we still get to grieve. Even after a year or two or twenty. 

We all are invited to grief whatever loss needs to be acknowledged and grieved. But we never have to do it alone.