Reflections on Ambiguous Loss & Grief

What We Lost and What Can We Gain?

I’m looking to redefine normal. Our communities have been turbulent over the past two years, and between all the social distancing, I’m looking to explore the losses that myself, family and communities have faced due to COVID-19. I’m really open to reconciling what I’ve lost and deciding what it means over the past two years. Amid the long walks, the boredom and rationalization of what’s happening grief is a feeling that continues to come up. A grief that feels a bit harder to identify, it’s ambiguous.

Ambiguous Loss

The hopes and opportunities for community never happened, the loss I keep coming back to is all the missed moments. It’s the small things the past two years could have been like. This loss I think is collective, so many of us put our lives on hold and not knowing when it will end has been unnerving. We won’t get this time back. It strange to grieve about an idea of my life - something I never had.

I’m grateful I’m not the only one that is feeling this way. Looking at the COVID-19 Grief Toolkit demonstrates that grief is not liner and emotions can vary from moment to passing moment.

That redefinition of normal Is my way to accept a way to come to terms with this sense of ambiguous loss. I’m remembering all the unexpected ways I changed. The new connections made, the innovative ways to demonstrate care for others, amid the loss I’m developing a new way forward.

Taking it all in stride,

Tyson