What Children Can Teach Us About Grief: Joy and Sorrow Are not competitors (A Guest Post)

I've come to believe that one of the greatest mistakes adults make is assuming that because children return to play, they've left their grief behind. But play isn't the opposite of grief any more than laughter is the opposite of love. Children have an extraordinary ability to move in and out of sorrow without feeling the need to explain themselves. Somehow, they know instinctively what many adults spend years trying to relearn: joy and sorrow are not competitors. They are companions.