Grief does not move in a straight line because love never lived on a schedule.

Grief is often described as stages, as though it were a corridor with an exit at the end. It rarely behaves that way, because the relationship it comes from never behaved that way either. Love moved through years unevenly, in bursts and long quiet stretches, and its aftermath keeps the same rhythm. A good month followed by a hard week is not a relapse.

Stop measuring yourself against a timeline someone else drew. Notice instead what tends to bring the hard days on, a season, a song, a certain kind of light, and give yourself more room around them. Expecting the unevenness makes it easier to bear.