Maybe it sounds simplistic, but I decided to focus on the blessings that I’d been given instead of focusing on what I was missing. I started to treat myself with kindness. I told myself not to blame myself for feeling alternately bereft and numb, for having indulged in such a long, quiet period of sadness. That’s what my body had needed, I realized; that’s what my spirit had needed—to mourn and mourn fully. To feel the sadness I hadn’t wanted to feel. I didn’t know exactly how to move from a world of gray back into a world of vibrant color, but one day I figured out one simple thing I could
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