“The Silent Weight of Living with the Dead”

Losing someone dear is an experience that cuts deep. It’s a wound that doesn’t heal with time - but changes you, sometimes drastically. Grief is a natural, necessary process. Mourning, tears, silence and even anger are all individual ways of expressing sorrow. No one should ever be denied the space to feel pain or to process loss. It is, in many ways, a testament to love shared between individuals.

But amidst this upheaval of emotions, there lies a quiet grain of truth that needs to be acknowledged: while remembering those we’ve lost is part of healing, clinging to them too tightly is not healthy for either of the souls.

There are times when lingering grief becomes unhealthy. When individuals begin to “live with the dead.” In such moments, it becomes easy to turn away from the living — from friends, family and community who continue to love and need us. The pain becomes a shadow that obscures all light, and in that shadow, people can lose sight of life itself.

What many don’t realize is that in holding too tightly to the departed, one may also be holding them back. If one believes that the soul has a journey beyond this life, then it’s important to understand that unresolved grief, constant mourning and deep emotional entanglement can become barriers in that journey. Souls are not bound by time or tears, they are connected by love. And love, at its purest, is not about possession—it’s about release.

True love is found in letting go rather than holding on. Not in forgetting, but in freeing. It’s honoring the life that was lived, not by drowning in sorrow, but by choosing to live more meaningfully.

Each one of us has the power to transform pain into purpose. One of the most beautiful ways to honor those we’ve lost is through kindness—by doing something good in their name. Volunteer, help a stranger, plant a tree, support a cause they cared about, or simply offer a smile to someone who needs it. Let love become a beacon of light in the world. That is how their memory lives on—not in mourning, but in meaningful action.

Grief will visit us all; death is the only certainty in life. But when that moment comes, may we all choose to remember our loved ones not only through our tears but through the joy, compassion and happiness we continue to bring into the world in their name.

Let their legacy be love in motion.