Community Grief Coalition

07/20/2026

Grief Longings

One of the least talked about parts of grief isn't just missing the person you love.

It's missing the life you were able to live before your loss.

You still want to do a good job at work.

You still want to be present with your family.

You still want to answer the emails, finish the laundry, return the phone calls, serve at church, exercise, laugh, dream, and make plans.

The longing is still there.

But your capacity has changed.

Many grieving people become frustrated with themselves because they measure today's ability against yesterday's strength.

"I can't focus."

"I've read this report three times."

"I know what needs to be done, but I just can't seem to start."

"I'm exhausted, and I don't even know why."

These are not signs that you've become lazy, weak, or unmotivated.

They are often signs that grief is quietly doing the exhausting work of teaching your heart and mind how to live in a world that has been forever changed.

Your values haven't disappeared.

You still care deeply.

Grief has simply changed what you're able to carry today.

I often think about fishing.

Not every day on the water is a day for catching fish.

Some days you cast.

Some days you untangle the line.

Some days you mend the net.

Some days you simply sit quietly on the dock, watching the water and waiting for the strength to cast again.

None of those days are wasted.

They're all part of being a fisherman.

Grief is much the same.

Healing isn't measured only by what you accomplished today.

Sometimes healing looks like showing up for work when it took everything you had just to get dressed.

Sometimes it looks like answering one email instead of twenty.

Sometimes it looks like making dinner.

Sometimes it looks like resting without apologizing for it.

If your heart is longing to do more than your grief will allow today, be gentle with yourself.

The longing isn't evidence that you've failed.

It's evidence that love is still alive within you.

And little by little, as healing comes, you'll find yourself picking up the rod again, casting a little farther than you could yesterday.

One faithful cast at a time. 💙

07/19/2026

WHEN LIFE CHANGES
No one prepares us for how completely loss changes the landscape of our lives.
One day life feels familiar.
The next, we find ourselves trying to learn a world we never wanted to enter.

People often tell us to "be strong."
To "stay busy."
To "move on."

Most of the time, they're trying to help. They simply don't know what else to say.

But grief isn't something we conquer.
It's something we learn to carry.

If today feels overwhelming, take a deep breath and remember this:

You don't have to have all the answers.

You don't have to know what tomorrow looks like.

You don't even have to be okay today.

You only have to take the next breath...
the next moment...
the next wise step.

If no one has told you today...

You have permission to cry.

You have permission to rest.

You have permission to say, "This is really hard."

You have permission to ignore the timeline others place on your grief.

And if someone says something that hurts—even though they meant well—remember that their words do not define your journey.

At the Community Grief Coalition, we believe healing doesn't begin by pretending life hasn't changed.

It begins by acknowledging that it has...and discovering that you don't have to walk this new road alone.

We walk alongside you.

🤍 Community Grief Coalition

Grieve Together.
Heal Together

07/13/2026

Join us for a free live event on July 21st, 2026 on the Healing Power of Writing through Grief. With David Kessler, one of the world’s foremost grief experts, and Andrea Cagan, bestselling ghostwriter, author, editor, and writing coach.

07/12/2026

Special THANKS to Mr. Cotten and the Fayetteville Beyond Blue Community Center Team of Blue Cross NC for inviting us to be a part of today’s Beyond Blue . We enjoyed an awesome time of sharing resource information to include our upcoming FREE Navigating Grief During The Holidays event - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CF2DRf9H1/, learning about organizations like Better Health / The CARE Clinic / etc., and connecting with our AMAZING community members from across the greater Fayetteville area. Looking forward to continued collaboration on future activities that support health and wellbeing. 👍

06/21/2026

SAVE THE DATE - 7.11.2026 from 11A-2P and stop by our table at Beyond Blue Cross NC Neighborhood Center - Fayetteville’s Beyond Blue at 1800 Owen Drive, Fayetteville, NC 28304. Looking forward to connecting with you and sharing about our coalition and upcoming activities. ☺️

06/12/2026

All these stages are valid. Yet, in time we can learn to live and love again. Learning a new routine can actually help facilitate healing.

https://healgrief.org/living-with-grief/

06/12/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17hnuzs27L/

One of the cruelest things grief does is make people miss who they were before the loss happened. Before life split into "before" and "after".
Many grieving people are not only longing for the person they lost. They are also grieving the version of themselves that felt safer in the world. Lighter. More certain. More able to imagine a future without fear. Because profound loss changes the way people move through life.

Grief often alters a person’s internal sense of safety far more than people realise.
After significant loss, many bereaved people describe feeling emotionally different, even years later.
More vigilant.
More fragile.
More aware of how quickly life can change.
This is not pessimism.
It is often the nervous system adapting after experiencing something deeply painful or shocking.
Psychologically, loss can disrupt what is called our “assumptive world,” the unconscious belief that life is relatively predictable, controllable, and safe.
And once that illusion breaks, people often feel changed by it.
This is why grieving people sometimes miss the person they used to be.
Not because growth has not happened. But because innocence has been replaced with awareness.
And that can feel profoundly difficult to carry.
- Zoe Clark-Coates
Artist Credit: Shawna Erback via Pinterest

05/23/2026

Everyone thinks the hardest part of grief is the goodbye.

It isn't.

The hardest part is every single morning after.

Waking up and for one second...just one....forgetting.

And then remembering...

The hardest part is the Friday afternoon that ambushes you out of nowhere.

The song that finds you in the grocery store.

The habit of reaching for your phone to call them.

The inside joke that has no one to tell it to.

The hardest part is learning how to exist in a world that kept moving when yours stopped.

Learning how to answer "how are you" when the honest answer would stop the conversation completely.

Learning how to sit at a table that has a different number of people at it now.

Learning how to celebrate things.

How to laugh at things...

How to want things.

When part of you feels like wanting anything is a betrayal of the weight you're supposed to still be carrying.

The goodbye was one moment.

As devastating as it was...it was one moment.

What comes after is every moment.

Every morning.

Every ordinary Wednesday.

Every holiday....

Every first and every anniversary and every random day that hits harder than the ones that were supposed to.

That's the part nobody prepares you for.

Not the goodbye.

The after.

The long, quiet, relentless after.

And if you're living in the after right now....

You are doing the hardest thing.

Not the goodbye.

This.

What you're doing right now.

This is the hardest part.

And you are still here.

05/19/2026

Thought-provoking 💭 information about .

We often start grieving our potential losses in advance. Can we do this more wisely?