01/29/2026
One of the hardest things about grief isn’t always the sadness.
Sometimes it’s the lethargy.
After my spouse died, I lost all ambition.
Before that, I had plans. Goals. Energy. Confidence.
I worked hard. I was excited about life. I believed in what I was building.
And then…I didn’t care about anything.
I tried to fight it, but grief doesn’t respond well to being fought.
You can’t will yourself out of that kind of exhaustion.
But slowly…something began to change.
What started to wake me up wasn’t a big dream or a bold new plan.
It was the idea of simplifying.
Letting go of clutter.
Reducing what felt overwhelming.
Making life smaller, quieter, more manageable.
I began looking at my world differently, asking what I could release instead of what I needed to add. Even the work I was doing shifted.
Less quantity.
More quality.
Less noise.
More meaning.
And yes…sometimes it hurts.
Many of the things I let go of are tied to the life I shared with my spouse.
Each change can feel like losing another small piece of them.
Another reminder that life is different now.
But the pull toward simplicity is strong.
So I keep moving forward, gently, imperfectly, holding both the sadness and the small sense of renewal that comes with it.
Grief doesn’t always push us toward more.
Sometimes it leads us toward less.
And in that less…we begin to breathe again.
Gary Sturgis – Surviving Grief
