Wish You Were Here

by Renee Carlino

Helen could love. Yes, she had a type but she found something intriguing in everyone she met, no matter what they did, how they acted, or what they looked like. She took all of these people that entered her life and she let each one touch her heart in some way. It made her beautiful because she was able to see the beauty in others. She took chances, she loved hard, and sometimes she fought hard and cried hard in the end.

“I realized that right now is all that matters for everyone. Even if I had my whole life in front of me the way you do, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

He taught me that one way to give your life meaning is to teach another person how to look within and love.

“If you told me I could have another life, a longer life, but that I couldn’t have you, I’d say no thanks. I’d take you and my short life over and over again.”

“I think we have soul mates, but I think we can have more than one, just like we can have more than one career, or more than one hobby, or more than one fucking favorite food. Different people connect to different parts of our souls.

When a person is ready to fall in love, it happens fast. There’s no looking back or in between to find empty space where water can put itself to freeze, to crack the two of you apart. There is no void. There’s no weighing of options or analysis of pros and cons. Everything is reduced to feelings and emotions and actions that don’t need explanation or justification.

Love is a wordless secret; it’s an inside joke. Only the two of you have to understand it.