Quotes from work

For One More Day

“I saw in her expression that old, unshakable mountain of concern. And I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know”

“I thought about the days i had handed over to a bottle.. the nights i can't remember.. the mornings i slept thru.. all the time spent running from myself.”

“I also believe that parents, if they love you, will hold you up safely, above their swirling waters, and sometimes that means you'll never know what they endured, and you may treat them unkindly, in a way you otherwise wouldn't.”

“One day spent with someone you love can change everything.”

“When a lost loved one appears before you, it's your brain that fights it, not your heart.”

“It was sad, the imbalance of it all. Why do kids assume so much from one parent and hold the other to a lower, looser standard?”

“But she wasn’t around, and that’s the thing when your parents die, you feel like instead of going in to every fight with backup, you are going into every fight alone.”

“You can find something truly important in a minute…”

“You need to keep people close. You need to give them access to your heart.”

“She had a bottomless well of love for me.”

“One day can bend your life.”

“When death takes your mother, it steals that word forever.”

“but then she did. she died. no more visits, no more phone calls. And without even realizing it, I began to drift, as if my roots had been pulled, as if I were floating down some side branch of a river.”

“Suddenly, details seemed extremely important. Details were something to grab on to, a way to insert myself into the story.”

“Secrets tear you apart.”

“I realized when you look at your mother, you are looking at the purest love you will ever know.”

“Being unheard is the ground floor of giving up, and giving up is the ground floor of doing yourself in. It’s not so much, what’s the point? It’s more like, what’s the difference?”

“I love you every day,
Mom”

“I think what you notice most when you haven’t been home in a while is how much the trees have grown around your memories.”