Wear Your Grief

Grief is a human experience. Unlike visible injuries, grief is often unseen and can instil feelings of loneliness. It is felt deeply and sadly on some days but can make you smile and remember fondly on others. Grief experiences can also be tangled up in the complexity of relationships as they existed in life before death. Grief-feeling moments and days can be random and unexpected or can be anticipated in the lead-up to calendar dates or life events that hold significance. Grief can tap you on the shoulder as life goes on and new experiences are had, but someone is missing from the journey. Grief can be complex, and in Western society is often misunderstood, rushed, or filled with expectations about timelines that do not reflect the very non-linear forever experience of grief.

Wear Your Grief is a social connection initiative that has grown from the memory of my beautiful mum, Hazel, who passed away on 6th February 2018. There are so many (expected and unexpected) calendar dates that I miss her intensely and so many new beginnings she has missed since she passed away. Over the years, on these grief-feeling days, I have sometimes received a unique sense of understanding from others, which has been received warmly, with gratitude, and in ways I will never forget. However, in other moments, I have been told to smile more, lighten up, and expected to “get on with it”. At the time of my mum’s death, I felt expectations to socialise and return to work at pre-grief enthusiasm levels and capacity that were just impossible. But what if, like a visible injury, grief could be seen without having to explain it first, and the outside world could understand the deep, day-to-day and lifelong impacts of grief with less judgement and more compassion.

Wear Your Grief is a way for grief to be visible. It is a way to ignite conversations about grief and those we miss or are fearful of losing due to illness or other reasons and to acknowledge the human experience of what it can mean to grieve.

To support Wear Your Grief, to wear your grief, recognise someone else’s grief or connect with someone who is grieving, you can purchase a Wear Your Grief pin for $12 AUD (including postage within Australia). Professionals and businesses can also purchase a box of Wear Your Grief pins to offer as a compassionate token for clients. For more information, reach out via the contact page on this website.

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