Having a loved one die hurts…I am overcome with sadness…Because I’m never again going to get a chance again to spend time with this person I loved…I won’t get to ask them for advice…I won’t get to share a joke…I won’t get to cry alongside them…Those moments are gone…Because of that I hurt deeply…The hurt that I am feeling is just my system telling me that I miss someone who is really important…I want my system to know that I am completely aware of that fact…I am aware of the loss…I am aware of the disconnection…I give my system permission to feel that sadness…I’m not running away from this sadness…I’m not avoiding the sadness…It is simply my experience in this moment…But I also recognize the fact…Then I don’t have to stay in that loss…It’s not the only part of this experience…How lucky am I to have had this person in my life…I know my life is better because of their presents in it…I know my life is richer because of that experience…And I appreciate deeply the fact that I knew them…Even though I miss them…I recognize the fact that this feeling isn’t going to last forever…That this sadness isn’t going to last forever…That this pain isn’t going to last forever…Even though in this moment it feels like it will…In this moment I’m allowed to feel grief…I don’t have to fight it…I give myself permission to know it’s not my total experience…This experience is more than the grief…I’m allowed to appreciate and I’m allowed to celebrate period I’m allowed to honor this friendship…They will be missed…I will feel the sadness of their loss again because they are loved…I don’t have to feel sadness to honor the friendship…Feeling sadness is one of the ways to honor the friendship…I give myself permission to honor it in so many other ways…I am so lucky they were in my life…Remembering that is so much more important than the sadness of their loss…This sadness will pass…This grief will pass…But my connection to them will remain forever.