To be human is to confront mortality, yet death is a profoundly unsettling prospect that few people accept with total peace. Some losses seem unfathomable — such as the death of a parent, child, or best friend — but it is beyond our control who Death takes; we can only allow ourselves the time and self-compassion to grieve as we are constantly propelled forward in time, into a future without the deceased. Bereavement is a topic that hits especially close to home for me. About a year after I graduated from university, when I was 23 years old, my mother suddenly and unexpectedly passed away from an acute health condition…