Never Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World

by Christina Rickardsson

What’s so fascinating about memories is how certain ones are saved and others are not; some vanish for good, and some can come back.

Missing someone doesn’t have anything to do with how long it’s been since you last saw each other, or the number of hours that have passed since you last spoke. It’s about specific moments when you wish they were there by your side.

Because there’s a big difference between choosing not to take care of your children and living in a society that doesn’t give its citizens resources so you can take care of them.

But she gave me the finest thing a person can give—she gave me love. She listened, and she gave me her time.

you could feel joy and pain, then you were alive, even though it might hurt and you could run out of steam and lose your faith. But going through life like a ghost, being alive but with a dead soul, like an empty husk, was worse.

The tears of the powerless are not tears of frustration. They’re not tears that gush or tears that burn. The tears of the powerless are silent and resigned. When you know that no one cares, the tears are all you have. You need them to be able to go on, to be able to feel hope, because they relieve the pressure.

assume you’ve got to believe in something when no one believes in themselves.

I believe that everything comes when we’re ready, and once we’ve opened a door, it can be hard to shut again.

Sadly, our biggest regrets are also the ones that follow us the rest of our lives.

for thinking about leaving us. I was sure she was. I sat there and refused to

I began to understand that people, especially grown-ups, weren’t interested in the truth but rather in a truth that suited them.

Throughout my life, I have made the choice to never see myself as a victim.

realize that my life really hasn’t been about finding myself, but about creating myself.

What I didn’t know then was that when you try to hold on to the past as hard as I was, you sometimes miss out on living in the present.

It’s not where you come from; it’s where you belong that matters. And it’s OK to feel like you belong in more than one place.

Sometimes you meet people you only get to be with for a short time. What’s difficult is accepting that and moving on. But sometimes that may be what you have to do. Accept that a relationship is only a loan, and when it’s not there anymore, you should rejoice at having had the honor of having it at all, of receiving so much without needing to give. Maybe it didn’t end the way you wanted or expected. Maybe it ended before it really had a chance to begin, or ended without your having a chance to say goodbye.

Emotions are so powerful. They can say more than words ever can.

Anyone who claims that blood is thicker than water, that the ties in a family who share the same genes are stronger, does not understand how love works.

We never know our strength until life tests us. But most of all, we don’t know what strength and power another person has until we follow them for a while on their journey. It’s not easy saying goodbye, and for Mama and me, it was almost impossible.

Death has the ability to hang over you, enough so that you feel alive but wish to be gone. It reminds us at regular intervals that life is not to be taken for granted. Life reminds us that we don’t always get what we want. Life reminds us that death is out there.

Love can’t be bought, manufactured, or elicited on request. It’s a gift that we choose to give and to receive. It’s unselfish and maybe it can’t move mountains, but it can do something even better: it can save a life.

I’ve learned that a person can be stripped of everything, but also that everything is possible as long as you never stop walking.