HOW TO SURVIVE FALLING INTO GRIEF: AUTUMN SEASON

By Gabrielle Thomas Booker

Autumn is a season of contradiction. Crisp air and warm drinks. Fading light and golden glow. Harvests and farewells. It’s also, for many, the quietest entry into sorrow—the season that mirrors our own inner decay when grief visits, uninvited and unapologetic.

But this isn’t a guide for getting better.

It’s a hymn for those who aren't ready to heal.

This is how to not survive falling into grief—when the leaves fall faster than you can catch them, and you decide, maybe for once, not to try.

1. LET THE TREES TEACH YOU

The trees do not fight the falling. Neither should you.

Grief is not a storm to withstand—it is a season to witness.

Let it strip you bare. Let it make you raw.

Forget blooming.

Forget branches full of joy.

Be bark. Be the hollow. Be the crack.

Survival isn't always the goal.

Sometimes, the goal is simply feeling it all.

2. STOP TRYING TO BE STRONG

Let your voice shake.

Let your eyes swell.

Let your chest ache in public places.

Grief does not care for appearances.

It’s not asking for your poise—it’s asking for your presence.

And honestly?

There’s something sacred in breaking

before anything gets rebuilt.

3. GIVE UP THE TIMELINE

There is no “six stages.”

There is no clock.

Grief doesn’t keep a calendar.

So what if it’s been a year?

So what if it’s been ten?

Autumn comes back every year, doesn’t it?

So does your ache. Let it.

This season is not about endings.

It’s about the long goodbye.

4. ROMANTICIZE YOUR MELANCHOLY

Drink tea like it’s medicine for ghosts.

Wrap yourself in blankets like they’re spells.

Light candles like you’re summoning what was lost.

Let grief be gothic. Let it be art.

Let your sadness be a masterpiece.

Not everything broken needs fixing.

Some things just need framing.

5. BECOME THE ECHO

Stop filling the silence.

Become it.

Echo the person you lost. Echo the person you were.

Speak to the wind like it’s listening.

Be haunted.

Be hallowed.

Be half-here if you must.

You don’t need to return whole.

Just return when you're ready.

Final Thoughts

We’re told to survive grief like it’s a war.

Like we’re soldiers. Like grief is the enemy.

But maybe it’s the season instead.

And maybe… you don’t survive a season.

You sit through it. You become it.

You let it pass—not because you fought it,

but because you didn’t.

This autumn, if you’re grieving,

don’t rush to bloom again.

Let the falling be your offering.

And when winter comes—

you will have already learned how to live among the bare branches.

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