Pendulum

Day 220 / 366

Do you remember reading about pendulums back in school? Their to-and-fro motion slowly dies down until it comes to a stop. I thought about this today because it is the best metaphor I could think of about how to overcome grief.

Grief is not something that goes away in a straight line. There is a sort of back-and-forth involved in it. It’s not as if you are extremely sad one day, less sad a week later, and then totally okay in a month. You would keep going from sad to ok and then sad again, oscillating just like a pendulum.

This is why dealing with grief is so tricky. One day you will be all fine, feeling happy that you have finally moved on. And then out of nowhere something would trigger you and you would get sad again. You will realise that it never left you, it was just lying dormant like a volcano waiting to interrupt.

But do not worry, this is a positive metaphor, not a negative one. See, just like the pendulum slows down, these episodes of grief become less frequent and more frequent to deal with time. Until one day when they would just stop forever. Time really does heal all wounds.

So next time you find yourself questioning why you have not gotten over something or someone yet, I hope you think of the pendulum, and that it makes you feel a bit better.