Day 2: Make room to grieve

Reflect

We tend to talk about change at work as a logistics problem. But if you have spent years in a role, or a season of life, you may be losing more than a paycheque or a plan. You may have lost a daily rhythm, a place where people knew your name, a sense of being good at something, and a picture of how the next ten years would go.

Those are real losses, and grief is the natural response to real loss. It is not weakness, and it is not a lack of trust in God. Scripture gives mourning its own season. The shortest verse in the Bible records Jesus weeping at a friend's grave, even though he knew what he was about to do. Tears were not an obstacle to his faith. They were part of his love.

Grief can be untidy. It may show up as sadness, or as numbness, or as sudden irritation over something small. It may come in waves between periods of feeling perfectly fine. None of that means you are doing it wrong. There is no correct schedule.

Some people feel pressure to be grateful straight away, to say that everything happens for a reason and to skip ahead to the lesson. Gratitude has its place, and we will come to it. But a thankfulness that has not been allowed to be sad first tends to sound hollow, even to the one saying it.

So today, give your sorrow a little room. Ten quiet minutes, with nothing to solve, is enough. If it feels heavy, that is a sign it matters, not a sign that something has gone wrong. And if the weight becomes too much to hold, please do not hold it alone: the note at the bottom of this page tells you where to turn.

Verse

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”

Ecclesiastes 3:4 (KJV)

Journal

What did my work give me besides pay? (For example: routine, people, a sense of being useful, a story about my future.) Which of these do I miss most?

One small action

Sit for ten minutes without trying to fix anything. No phone, no news about AI. Then write one sentence beginning: "I miss..."

A 60-second breath prayer

Breathe in: “You see what I have lost”

Breathe out: “stay with me in it”

Breathe slowly for about a minute, saying the first line as you breathe in and the second as you breathe out.