rauch4322's Blog

So don't go. Easy. I hate birthdays myself....Just because most people like them doesn't mean you have to.

Hey Rauch - Grieving is not something that comes with an expiration date or a set schedule. Perhaps the most significant step in the whole process is giving yourself permission to take the time and the space to grieve your friend's death however feels appropriate to you. You don't have to be 'over it' within a month, or six months, or a year...it's a slow, gradual process of recovery, and it may well be that you will never be the same person that you were before that event that you are grieving. You will be able to function in the ways that you need to, but your life has undergone a change that will be with you for a long, long time. And that isn't a bad thing...I can think of worse ways for your friend to be remembered than by the changes of perspective and experience that his death wrought in your life, as well as the changes that knowing him while he was living made in your life. In the end, for most of us, that's really the only lasting impact that we have.cheers!aj