In the Midst of Uncertainty and Grief, Here’s How to Let Go

It’s hard to surrender when you’re grieving… but it’s not impossible

Photo by Michelle Leman from Pexels

A lot of grieving people—myself included—have trouble with surrender after loss. In addition to reckoning with big, existential questions —Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do pets die? Where is god in grief? Why here? Why now? Why me?—we’re often plagued with practical questions as well. Should I leave my job? Should I sell the house? Should I hire a caregiver? Should I reconsider having children?

When we’re devastated by grief, questions that we would normally keep relegated to the distant corners of our minds join forces with questions we’ve never thought to ask ourselves before and pound our brains with query after query, exhausting us with their relentlessness and impossibility.

In a futile attempt to answer these questions, our minds perpetually gnaw on data, regurgitating and re-digesting every scrap of information we have in order to make sense of what’s happening. When we don’t have tangible facts to work with, our brains invent them, offering up possible storylines on…