“The sh*tty thing about grief is that life moves on no matter what you’re feeling…”

The tears in my eyes distorted my vision and my face flushed. I put down my laptop and tried to focus on the glittering ornaments that were a few feet away from where I sat. The rest of Britt’s email would have to wait.

My mom had died less than a month ago, but I was worn out from grieving. No matter how much I reminisced, wailed, raged, or wall-slid, she wasn’t coming back. And I wasn’t feeling better.

I decided to pull myself together and get back to work. If “Keep Calm and Carry On” was a person, I knew her as Mommy. And I was convinced this was what she would’ve wanted me to do.

But putting on a brave face with my own clients was still too much for me to handle. So I took advantage of an offer from Brittany to work my magic behind the scenes in her biz for a year while I worked up the nerve to be the face—and voice—of my own company again.

That choice would prove to be one of many grief-fueled decisions that I’ve come to regret over the past 3 months. So I bowed out of that role and took a minute to regroup.

(continue reading below)

Losing my mother was a profound personal loss, but 2020 kicked all of us in the shins. I’m hardly the only person struggling right now.

So if you’re feeling a bit of pandemic fatigue, that’s reasonable… but there is a way to move forward without being tone deaf to your audience and the potential pain they are still feeling.