Eleanor & Grey

by Brittainy C. Cherry

You can be anything in the world, and it would be good enough. Job title doesn’t matter as long as you have food on your table, and heat on your stove. What matters the most is being happy. So, when you do grow up, make sure you’re happy. Everything else will fall into place.’

“Fear’s okay, as long as you don’t let it drown you.”

Something should be said about the people who show up for the depressed souls. They never receive enough credit for being brave enough to stay.

It blew my mind how a mother could be the strongest person in a room, even at her weakest.

“You are my heartbeats. You are my masterpiece. In a way, I feel as if I cheated death, because I get to live on within you, in your smile, in your laugh, in your heart. I’m there for it all, Eleanor. I’m eternal because of you. So please, do all the things. Take risks. Find adventures. Keep living for me and know that it has been the greatest honor being your mother. I am so lucky to have loved you.”

People didn’t have to talk about love to know it existed. Love wasn’t only real because someone said it out loud. No, love just kind of sat there quietly, in the shadows of the night, healing the cracks that lived in our hearts.

“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” -Fred Rogers

No human ever had to speak of their sadness for it to be seen. Others just had to take the time to truly notice someone to see it.

“Nothing in life is personal, not really. Some people will love you for who you are today, others will hate you for it, and none of their opinions matter either way—not the good or the bad. Only you can define who you are. No one else has that right.”

you can’t fix a home that isn’t seen as broken by the people who live within those walls.”

Maybe all people needed sometimes was for someone to keep showing up for them during the hard days, even when they tried their best to push everyone away.

We were still broken, and cracked, and growing and learning. We were mistakes and perfection, flowing streams and hurricanes.

We fell together quickly, and we fell together fast. Once we started the descend, there was never a moment of regret. There was simply respect and understanding. We worked through the hard parts together, and we found our way around the tough days.

You deserve the completely healed Greyson, not who he is right now. Plus, he deserves to completely heal before he can learn to give himself away again. Don’t take his broken pieces and call them love.”

He was just him, I was me, and we were us.

A mother understands your heartbeats when you cannot even interpret their sounds. They see you as magnificent even when you feel like you’re so unworthy of love. They calm the doubts that wreak havoc on your soul. They show you what unconditional love is from the day you take your first breath. Sometimes it feels like they know you better than you’ll ever know yourself, and then, one day, they are gone. You feel cheated. Cheated on the things that they haven’t yet taught. Cheated on the lessons you still needed to learn. Cheated out of laughter, and smiles, and comfort, and love. But what I’ve learned with time is that my mother is still around me. I see her in everything. Whenever there is beauty, that is where my mother exists. I know she’s never gone, no matter what reality tries to tell me, because my heart is crafted from her love, and as long as it beats, she lives on. So, that heart of yours? The one you think is damaged and bruised and unworthy of existing? That heart is perfect, and it cannot wait to show you how much love is waiting for you in this world. And whenever you need that reminder, place your hands over your chest, and feel your mother’s love in every single beat.

the sun can shine again. All you have to do is wake up.”