I’ve lived through sorrows, large and small, and I survived.  That is the key lesson, that the size of the grief isn’t the most important thing, it’s how well we manage to survive the pain.

Let me say here that no one survives it all alone.  We need family, friends, colleagues and complete strangers to help us through.  Part of the effort is in learning to accept both pain and comfort, however they present themselves.  We may think we have to be strong and do it all ourselves but that ignores the fact that we swim in an ocean of social connections.  We are alone only inside our heads, and not always even then!