On today’s episode, John Onwuchekwa sits down with Natalie Lauren Sims to explore what grief actually feels like when loss comes in waves. From losing multiple family members in a short span of time to navigating numbness, rage, memory loss, faith, and radical acceptance, this conversation offers a powerful framework for understanding grief beyond clichés and stages.
John shares his four-part model of grief as body language, oral language, written language, and sign language, while Nat opens up about surviving compounded loss, caring for a dying father, losing a beloved godmother to violence, and discovering that curiosity became his path forward.
Listen in as this episode is for anyone who has ever felt stuck, numb, angry, confused, or alone in their grief. More than anything, it is a reminder that grief is something you learn to speak.
KEY POINTS
- The goal of grief isn’t closure; it’s connection.
- Your body often recognizes grief before your mind does.
- Stories help us process loss because grief is ultimately about love, not just absence.
- Writing slows memory down long enough for us to make meaning from pain.
- Compounded loss can leave you feeling disconnected from your own life for years.
- Curiosity can be more powerful than answers when you're stuck in grief.
- Some grief settles into peace, while other grief remains too hot to touch.
- Radical acceptance is releasing the need to explain suffering.
QUOTES
"Grief ain't a journey. Journey is a bad metaphor. Grief is a language. Goal of a language, not to finish, to become fluent." – John Onwuchekwa
"Curiosity has been the superpower." – Natalie Lauren Sims
"Her absence isn't the thing that causes the most suffering. It's the meaning making that I'm after." – Natalie Lauren Sims
"I would wake up and I would realize that waking up was the nightmare." – Natalie Lauren Sims
"Every celebration now has an asterisk next to it." – John Onwuchekwa
RESOURCES:
Natalie Lauren Sims
IG | @natalielaurensims
John Onwuchekwa
Website | johno.co
IG | @jawn_o
Grief Is A Language is produced by EPYC Media Network
