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Look, we are not unspectacular things. We’ve come this far, survived this much. What would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder? —Ada Limón, “Dead Stars”
For summer people, the notion of a drawbridge is intrinsically romantic—an engineered nudge to slow down and enjoy the view.
At this, the nervous, nosy patients continue to nod with understanding, but only because they suddenly remember that the most beautiful people tend to be a little bit nuts.
sometimes adults lose their sense of humor. “Life is one big running joke,” he tells her. “Don’t forget that.”
instead of the ten-foot waves they remember, the ocean’s surface is glassy enough to host a slew of bobbing seagulls, mallards, and great cormorants. The rocky shoreline goes on for maybe a half mile, which contradicts their elementary school estimate of forever and ever.
The beach appears smaller now but no less beautiful. Especially at sunrise.
At birth, each person unwittingly signs a contract to say goodbye to everyone they’re about to meet. Life is merciless in that way, in its promise to end.
She understands she is on Earth for such an indefinite amount of time and that the only guarantee is that life is short and unreliable and that it is easy to get waylaid in daily stress that doesn’t ultimately matter.
Her gift, if she has one, is simple: She is at her best when she is supporting others.
A steady, ordinary life can be extraordinary so long as it’s centered around family and community and filled with love.
What good fortune to be spared one’s fortune.
She is coming to understand that love and loss live on the same coin. It’s never heads or tails but joy and agony, grief and delight, spinning in the air, waiting on time and luck to determine not when this chapter ends but how the next one begins.
the greatest lesson her own mother demonstrated on a daily basis was how to give with her whole heart.
A good compromise is when everyone leaves dissatisfied.
As unfair as it is, being the older sister has always meant brokering peace.
