https://www.healingrootssupport.org/grief-is-a-charcuterie-board

Featuring “Grief Is a Charcuterie Board” from Healing Roots Support, a grief and trauma-informed counseling practice founded by Dr. Katie Wiggins. Explore a compassionate metaphor for the many layers of grief and practical, hope-filled guidance for healing after loss.

Grief Is a Charcuterie Board

September 1, 2025

Grief doesn’t arrive neatly plated.

It’s more like girl dinner, or a charcuterie board thrown together at 9 p.m., a little hot tea, a tumbler of wine, a Yoo-hoo, some pistachios, and a soul-food tomato sandwich you slapped together while staring off into space. Snacking while the edamame water comes to a boil, wondering if you’ll even still be hungry by the time it’s done.

That’s grief. It’s a little bit of everything at once: comfort, chaos, survival, sweetness, bitterness. It’s grapes in a plastic carton beside half-sliced tomatoes on the cutting board. It’s coffee and chocolate milk coexisting on the same counter. It’s knowing you can’t make it through a full “meal,” but you’ll piece together enough to keep yourself alive tonight.

Grief is a spread of contradictions. The things that don’t belong together, belong together, because they’re what you had the energy to reach for. The pistachios, the leftover cheese, the mug with your tea bag string dangling, a sip of wine to chase it.

It’s not about the presentation. It’s about survival.

And like girl dinner, grief is about doing what you can with what you have, whether it looks pretty or not.

-Casie Ellison