Acceptance = healing

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross famously identified the Stages of Grief:
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
Kubler-Ross explained that to heal from grief and loss, we must go through the stages of grief to get to Accepting that the person is gone and not coming back. She explained that stages do not go in an exact order, and we can go through a stage and then return to it again later; we can jump from one to the other, and back again. Or, we can be stuck in a stage for a very long time.
But, healing is Acceptance. By Accepting, we can truly let them go and keep moving forward.

 I understood for a very long time that death is not the only way we lose someone or something. We lose people to breakups, moving away, friendships that grow apart, children growing up, accidents or injuries that change people physically or mentally. We lose our identity with job losses, career changes, growing older, retiring, illness, or tragic events.

But, Melody Beattie in Codependent No More recently helped me realize that every Emotion, as every loss, must be Accepted to truly be healed and let go.
Until we are brave enough to face and Accept any and all emotions tied to any event, we cannot fully heal, be free of the pain, or truly move on.