I want to smile again, without feeling guilty. I want to miss you, without coming undone. I want to celebrate your life, without my heart breaking. If there’s a good side of grief, I’ve yet to reach it. It’s not getting any easier. Time isn’t helping. Some days I feel as if the pain deepens. The roads ahead seem longer without you walking them beside me. It’s like I’m resistant to joy. Pushing back against my own happiness. I’m afraid that healing means forgetting, and I’m not ready to leave. Let me sit here for a little while longer. There are things I needed to tell you that I never got the chance to. Things you deserved to hear.... I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not doing more. If it was possible to bear your pain, I would have. Even when distant, my world was better because you were in it. I was always proud of you. My love for you is constant, unconditional, eternal. There are pieces of you I’m discovering in me. Little gifts you unknowingly left behind. Even your absence is filled with moments worth revisiting. Maybe instead of learning how to live without you, I’ll just bring the best of you with me. Maybe we're not meant to move on, we're meant to move with. J. Raymond "Best Of You" From The Kindred Project: Vol. II

You can shed tears that she is gone Or you can smile because she has lived You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her Or you can be full of the love that you shared You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday You can remember her and only that she is gone Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back Or you can do what she would want: Smile, open your eyes, love and go on. by David Harkins

If I could have just one more day with you… I would hardly speak. I would simply listen to your voice and commit every tone of it to memory until it became my favourite melody. I would look at you. I would study your eyes and your mouth, and I would learn every angle, every pane of your face until I could see you perfectly with my eyes closed. I would hold your hand in mine. I would trace all the lines on your palm until they became a trail – a map - that I could retrace on my own palm every time I felt lost. I would soak you up and breathe you in until there was not a single thing that I could not recall at a moment’s notice. But more than anything, if I had one more day with you, I would hold you. I would hold you so tight, hoping that maybe if I didn’t let you go… You wouldn’t. Yes, if I had just one more day with you, I would hope… I would hope so hard… that you wouldn’t have to leave again 💞💞💞