When we are dying or have suffered a catastrophic loss...
We all move through 5 distinct stages of grief.

We go into DENIAL because the loss is so unthinkable we can't imagine it is true.
We become ANGRY to everyone,
Angry to with survivors, angry with ourselves.
Then..we BARGAIN. We beg. We plead.
We offer everything we have..
..we offer our souls in exchange for just one more day.
When the bargaining has failed and the anger is hard to maintain,
We fall into DEPRESSION, despair..
..until finally..
We have to accept that we have done everything we can.
We let go.
We let go and move into ACCEPTANCE

Grief may be a thing we all have in common,
but it looks different on everyone.
It isn't just death we have to grieve. IT'S LOSS. IT'S CHANGE.

And..when we wonder why it has to suck so much sometimes, has to hurt so bad.
The thing we gotta try to remember is that it can turn on a dime.
That's how you stay alive. When it hurts so much you can't breathe, that's how you survive

By remembering that one day,
Somehow..
Impossibly..
You won't feel this way.
It won't hurt this much.

Grief comes in its own time for everyone,
in its own way.

So, the best we can do...
The best anyone can do..
..is try for honesty.

The really crappy thing,
the very worst part of grief..
..is that you can't control it.

The best we can do..
..is try to let ourselves feel it when it comes..
..and let it go when we can.

The very worst part is that....
..the minute you think you're past it..
..it starts all over again..
And always..
Every time..
it takes your breath away.

There are 5 stages of grief..
they look different on all of us..but there are always five.
.DENIAL.
.ANGER.
.BARGAINING.
.DEPRESSION.
.ACCEPTANCE.