what is grief?

In my opinion, this is what grief is.

It's this wave of emotion that can just engulf your entire body. Capture your mind and bleed into your thoughts. It can come back with any trigger. Completely hold you still in time. It’s reliving the moment where it stemmed from. Taking you back to that exact feeling. Feeling of loneliness, emptiness, heartbreak. And then you remember to breathe, intentional breaths. In and out, in and out, in and out. You try to escape it, avoid it, and ignore it. But it cannot be escaped, it cannot be avoided and it cannot be ignored. You quickly realize you have to learn to live with it, like an unwanted roommate, one that will never leave. You learn that you have to nurture it, you have to let yourself feel all the feelings. Let it run its course. “In time this too shall pass.” The feeling will pass. But, it will return.