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Forgive your perfect off of 
rain. 

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There is a crack. 
A crack in everything. 

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That's how the light gets in. 
Hello and welcome back to the 

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Tiny Pod. 
This week I want to talk about 

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grief. 
Grief is universal, one of the 

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most profoundly human 
experiences that every person, 

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everywhere will face. 
Every loss, every ending, every 

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change can bring grief. 
Defining grief isn't as simple 

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as the obvious losses and deaths
we experience. 

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Huge losses bring acute, obvious
grief. 

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But there is also the subtler 
grief, the quiet, unnoticed 

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grief of what could have been, 
the version of life you thought 

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you'd have, and the absence of 
things you didn't even realise 

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you valued. 
Grief doesn't start in death. 

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It begins at birth, from our 
very first moment. 

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We are navigating loss from the 
safety of the womb, from that 

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perfect cocoon of connection, 
and it compounds in childhood. 

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Every time a caregiver didn't 
meet us emotionally or 

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physically, we experienced a 
tiny rupture, a tiny loss. 

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As children, we use coping 
mechanisms to survive this 

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grief. 
Denial, repression, suppression,

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avoidance, fantasy, illusion, 
delusion, compartmentalisation. 

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And we continue to use these in 
adulthood, even when they no 

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longer serve us. 
As grief compounds, we fear it, 

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so we deny it or minimise it. 
Grief is layered in the life you

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didn't get to live, the love you
didn't receive, the version of 

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yourself that had to grow up too
fast, A soft ache that sits 

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quietly in the background that 
you didn't even know you were 

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carrying because it's always 
been there, stitched into your 

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nervous system. 
Normalised childhoods that 

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weren't safe, relationships that
needed us to shrink, years spent

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surviving instead of fully 
living all acclimatise us to 

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living in grief. 
Without consciously naming it, 

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it becomes familiar. 
We learn early to adapt, to 

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carry on, but those 
unacknowledged unmet needs stack

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up like invisible bricks in our 
nervous system and compound over

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time the accumulation of all 
these micro separations. 

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The not seen, not held, not 
understood moments shape how we 

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relate, how we love and how we 
respond to risk, to joy, to 

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vulnerability. 
Healing these early separations 

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and integrating all the lost 
pieces is key to living wholly 

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and freely. 
Grief shows up physically in our

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bodies as exhaustion, numbness, 
over functioning, rage, tears 

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that arrive without a clear 
reason, and in our physicality, 

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hunching, rounding our 
shoulders, weight gain, lack of 

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energy. 
This is grief asking to be 

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acknowledged, felt and moved. 
The word grief comes from Latin 

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gravis, meaning heavy, weighty, 
serious, burdensome. 

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Grief is heaviness, a weight you
carry, something that presses on

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you, pulls you down, slows you 
down and makes everything feel 

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harder. 
Obvious wounds we treat with 

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bombs, with medication and 
bandages, and yet we hide 

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internal wounds, even from 
ourselves. 

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That is why grief is insidious 
and often generational. 

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We carry burdens that were never
ours to carry. 

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Grief is heavy, but if we allow 
ourselves to feel it, it 

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lightens and it roots us in what
is real, what is present, what 

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is sacred. 
Grief is the heart's gravity 

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pulling us towards authenticity,
love towards life lived fully. 

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Heavy things don't disappear by 
pretending they're light and 

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unhealed. 
Grief carries on into the future

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through fear, anxiety, inaction,
or avoidance for fear of loss. 

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Grief is exhausting. 
It keeps us stuck in the story 

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of the past so we cannot be 
fully present. 

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As we face the truth of our 
grief and allow it to be seen, 

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named and honoured, we move 
through it and free our present 

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and future from the burdens of 
the past. 

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The past has stolen enough. 
Grief is inextricably tied to 

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love. 
It shows up wherever there was 

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attachment, care, passion, 
desire, connection, where we 

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have invested ourselves. 
Grief is the raw currency of 

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love. 
The depth of grief is the 

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measure of what you dared to 
feel. 

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We can get entwined in our grief
that it becomes part of our 

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identity. 
We may fear who we are without 

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it and the intention it brings, 
or use it as an excuse for what 

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we are not and to avoid the 
responsibility of being fully 

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accountable. 
Without grief to blame or depend

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on, we cite time as our 
solution. 

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But time does not take away 
grief. 

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It can soften the sting, but 
healing takes work, choice, and 

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courage from the heart. 
Grief is where the light enters.

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A broken heart is an open heart,
and when we open our hearts, we 

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open to life, to love, to 
feeling, and to healing. 

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The Japanese art of Kinsugi, 
repairing broken pottery with 

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gold, silver or platinum, 
celebrates the break. 

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There's no shame, no hiding. 
It is a visible part of the 

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story. 
The object is stronger and more 

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beautiful for having been 
broken. 

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Grief strengthens us, but it 
involves action. 

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The vase didn't sit broken, it 
was put back together. 

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Grief work isn't passive. 
It takes courage and commitment 

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to feel and to heal. 
Grief is like a Pebble you carry

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in your pocket. 
It doesn't shrink or disappear, 

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but your capacity to carry it, 
your resilience and your 

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strength grows as you heal. 
As we heal, the wound becomes 

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wisdom. 
Our suffering shapes our 

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character and our hope and faith
grows. 

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Hope is future, facing the 
quiet, leaning forward of the 

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soul, hoping for better, hoping 
love is possible, hoping 

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something good is coming. 
Hope needs time. 

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It lives in the not yet. 
It can flicker and be bruised by

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disappointment. 
Faith is present. 

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It is steady, unwavering belief 
without proof. 

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Faith is where you place your 
weight. 

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You don't hope the chair will 
hold you. 

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You sit. 
That's faith. 

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Hope imagines the chair. 
Faith sits, and love is the 

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ground underneath both hope and 
faith that was always there. 

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Grief work is done with love and
faith. 

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Sometimes suffering feels so 
great that people abandoned God 

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rather than choose faith. 
Yet faithful relationships 

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remain steady even in hardship. 
You don't abandoned your husband

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or friend or child in hard 
times. 

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You are faithful. 
Faith is knowing without seeing,

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trusting the steps even when you
can't see the path ahead. 

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Faith in grief, blame, shame, 
and guilt takes courage. 

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And courage comes from the 
heart. 

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Grief reveals itself piece by 
piece, lest the whole be too 

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overwhelming. 
This was certainly true for me. 

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I remember compartmentalising 
different aspects of my 

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childhood in smaller boxes that 
I could carry, and when I put 

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the whole picture together in 
its technicolour totality, it 

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was overwhelming. 
But I had faith to go deep and 

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dark and to allow it to get 
darker before it got light. 

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If the tree didn't allow its 
leaves to fall, the whole tree 

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would wither and die. 
Grief asks for surrender. 

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We experience collective grief, 
which can be debilitating if we 

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are carrying our own personal 
grief. 

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Activism is taking action, and 
the ability to act comes from 

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healing grief. 
When we deny our grief, we dull 

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our capacity to feel, to connect
and to love. 

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Grief felt consciously 
strengthens empathy and clarity.

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Once healed, collective grief 
falls like rain on a waterproof 

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coat. 
You still feel the rain, but 

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have both the strength to act 
and the softness to empathise 

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without getting pulled down. 
Healing grief isn't about 

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erasing it. 
It is integrating it, honouring 

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it, witnessing it, letting it be
held. 

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It is courageously traversing 
the depths of grief until the 

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darkness becomes light, 
illuminating what matters and 

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what you truly value. 
When we heal our grief, there is

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often relief at what we have 
survived and what we will never 

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have to face again. 
The worst has already happened. 

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We are also surprised at our own
strength, how much we have 

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overcome and are able to choose 
who we are now, unencumbered by 

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the weight of unmet grief. 
And this creates space for 

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unbridled joy. 
As Khalil Gibran wrote, the 

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deeper that sorrow carves into 
your being, the more joy you can

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contain. 
Grief is the invisible 

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architecture of our lives, the 
shadow of love, the echo of 

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connection, the silent sculptor 
of the human soul. 

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The more we face it consciously,
the more whole we become. 

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And when we welcome it as a 
companion, a guide and a 

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teacher, it brings presence and 
power. 

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As we release the past, we are 
free to live fully, deeply now. 

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I'll see you next week.