Where do I begin to share the lessons learned over the past 365 days? How do I summarize all my learnings, all my reflections, all my understandings? I don’t think I can, but I know I definitely can try.

One of the biggest gifts that this season of grief gave me was the ways in which my words and writing were exalted. I wrote and shared – totally unsure as to its purpose, I just knew that putting pen to paper, fingers to keyboards, was cathartic, it was a release; something I was compelled to do, I kept doing it, and the reason has finally arrived.

There are synchronicities that occur in your life to put you in alignment to a path, to a task or project.

There was this one particular month, where over and over I heard the ways in which my sharing and writing was helpful to people – that folks had never seen someone grieve so publicly – how my sharing has helped people in their darkest moments.

At the end of that month, I made the decision, “why don’t I just put all these writings together?”

Then shortly after, the title came to me, ” Grief is a ritual” – because that’s what grief is, a ritual, a ceremony. Something to be tended too. To be honored. To be slowed down for. To be witnessed for the grand moment it is in shaping our lives, genetic codes, and futures.

Thank you all for walking along and witnessing this path. For being expressive in your appreciation for and to me. Thank you for your validation and affirmation. I have unending gratitude to you all.

I dedicate this book to my heart. To my healing. And to my future.

*I am gonna wrap up the reflections, get to finalizing the manuscript, and then shop it around. If no one’s interested, I know how to self publish!

Cover design by Thania Guerra

Photo by Loubaba Boury