A Year Later

 On June 1, I sat down and began writing out “Thank You” cards to those who sent me sympathy cards when my dad passed last May. 

During this past year, I’ve made several attempts only to end up leaving the neatly stack cards on my tables or my bed. Thinking back I believe those cards comforted me each time I picked them up.

It took a year.

A year to sit down.

A year to revisit the grief.
A year to find words for kindness shown during one of the hardest seasons of my life.

Part of me wishes
I had done it sooner.

Last June.
Last summer.
Months ago.

But healing has its own timeline.

And maybe this wasn’t procrastination.
Maybe this was readiness.

Because grief took so much from me.
My energy.
My focus.
My capacity.

But yesterday, something returned.

Yesterday, I wrote the cards.

And maybe healing looks like this too:

Not becoming who I used to be
but noticing what I can finally hold again.