Grief for lost possibility — paths not taken

There is a particular grief for the lives we did not live — the career not pursued, the relationship not formed, the child not conceived, the country not moved to — a mourning for counterfactual selves that were once real possibilities. This grief is often dismissed because there is no concrete loss to point to, but it can be as real as any other form of mourning. This domain examines the grief of foreclosed possibility and what helps in reckoning with it.