10/20/2026
Sharing from a grieving friend…
I once heard someone say that grief is like glitter, and the more I think about it, the more I realize just how true that is. ✨
Think about it.
When glitter spills, it gets EVERYWHERE. It’s on your hands, in your hair, on your clothes, and somehow in places you didn’t even know it could reach. You can sweep it, vacuum it, wipe everything down, and convince yourself you’ve finally gotten it all.
But you haven’t.
Days, weeks, months, and even years later, you’ll find a little piece of it somewhere. Maybe on the floor, tucked in the corner of a drawer, or stuck to a shirt you haven’t worn in forever.
And that’s exactly how grief works.
In the beginning, it’s everywhere. It’s in every thought, every conversation, every quiet moment. You can’t seem to escape it. You try so hard to pull yourself together, to find some sense of normal again, to get through a single day without falling apart.
And little by little, you do.
Life starts happening again. You laugh. You make plans. You find joy in things you thought you’d never enjoy again.
But every now and then, that glitter shows back up.
It’s a song on the radio. A smell that takes you back. A picture you weren’t expecting to see. Or something happens and your first thought is to pick up the phone and call someone who isn’t there anymore.
And just like that, there’s that little piece of glitter again.
But …
Eventually, the glitter doesn’t always make you cry.
Imagine you’re out with your friends one night. You’re laughing, having a good time, just enjoying life. Someone looks over at you and says, “Hey, you’ve got a little piece of glitter on your face.”
And you smile.
You don’t rush to wipe it away. You don’t get upset that it’s there.
You just smile, because for a second, you notice how pretty it is. How it catches the light. How something so tiny can still sparkle.
And maybe you sit with that thought for just a moment.
Because there was a time when finding that little piece of glitter would have absolutely broken you.
But tonight, it didn’t.
Tonight, it reminded you of something beautiful.
Of a memory. Of a laugh. Of a voice you’d give anything to hear again. Of a love that was so big it left little pieces of itself scattered throughout the rest of your life.
And for once, you can sit with that memory for a second without it bringing you to tears.
You can smile because it happened instead of crying because that person isn’t here anymore.
That’s what I think people misunderstand about grief.
We don’t necessarily get over losing someone. We don’t wake up one day and suddenly stop missing them. We don’t clean up every last piece of glitter and go back to the person we were before.
We just learn to live in a world where the glitter is still there.
And over time, what once felt like a painful reminder of everything we lost can become a beautiful reminder of everything we were blessed enough to have.
Some days, that glitter will still bring you to your knees. I don’t think there’s any amount of time that makes us completely immune to that.
But other days?
Other days, it’ll catch the light just right.
And you’ll smile.
And maybe that’s what healing looks like. Not forgetting. Not moving on as if they never existed. But finally being able to remember someone you love without every memory feeling like another goodbye.
So if you’re in that season where the glitter is still everywhere and you can’t imagine a day when it won’t hurt quite so much, please keep going.
One day, you may find yourself laughing with your friends, with a little sparkle on your cheek, and realize that the very thing that once made you cry has become something that makes you smile.
Because grief is just love that doesn’t have anywhere to go. And maybe all those little pieces of glitter are simply reminders that some love is too beautiful to ever completely disappear. ✨❤️
