“Holding the knife with the blade against my palm, it became so clear how my life would only contain shadows now. Shadows of things gone; not just the people themselves but everything connected to them. Was this my future? Every moment, every tiny thing I saw and did and touched, weighted by loss. Every space in this house and
my town and the world in general, empty in a way that could never be filled.”
Source: The Beginning of After
“Thoughts, pictures of him would come to me just a second after waking, shocking me from the forgetfulness of sleep, striking blows that were almost physical. And even in sleep I was not completely free. So often sleep brought dreams of him.”
Source: The Godsend
“I stood there feeling the lightness of my bones, knowing now this was not only lack of sleep that had transformed my bones into feathers, but my body's recognition that soon I would be leaving this place I had inhabited for one year, this place made entirely of grief.”
Source: The Shape of Water
“Mrs. Sussex said Byron’s loss would grow more bearable. But here was the nub: he didn’t want to lose his loss. Loss was all he had left of his mother. If time healed the gap, it would be as if she’d never been there.”
Source: Perfect
“When in desperate search for a better door, ask God to open that door.”
Source: Beyond the Closed Door: Unique Keys to Unlock Destinies
“In our springtime
there is no better,
there is no worse.
Blossoming branches
burgeon as the must.
Some are long,
some are short.'
Stay upright.
Stay with life.”
Source: Three Shadows
“There are all sorts of losses people suffer- from the small to the large. You can lose your car keys, your glasses, your virginity. You can lose your head, you can lose your heart, you can lose your mind. You can relinquish your home to move into assisted living, or have a child move overseas, or see a spouse vanish into dementia. Loss is more than just death, and grief is the gray shape-shifter of emotion.”
Source: The Storyteller
“as if all the years haven't dulled that moment. She's staring at a spot of air in front of it, and I know, in that spot of air, is her son.”
Source: Words in Deep Blue
“Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love.”
Source: Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: plus Sonnets from the Porte-Cochere by S. H. Bass
“It's funny how sometimes you don't see the obvious things coming. You think you know what life has in store for you. You think you're prepared. You think you can handle it. And then-boom, like a thunderclap-something comes at you out of nowhere and catches you off guard.”
Source: The Last Time We Say Goodbye