It's Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool, Too)

by Nora McInerny Purmort

Grief is lonely, no matter how many other people feel it. They are different, each one, because we’ve lost different people, different versions of the same men. We are each carrying our own load, and it is ours alone to bear.

The only reason nobody else has told you how good of a job you’re doing is because they’re all so nervous they’re not doing a good job that they can’t even see what a good job you’re doing. Just out of frame of those perfectly staged Instagram photos are the same piles of unopened mail and dirty dishes and the same crushing sense of doubt that’s sitting on your chest right now, you just can’t tell because of the filter.

Someday, the universe will throw a wrench in the works and your well-oiled machine of a life will grind to a halt. And then it will keep going. Because after you got bored of crying and worrying, you took a deep breath and pushed it back into motion.

The world will keep spinning, and your life will get a little bit better every time you give up on the shit that is taking you away from your one wild and precious life.