A Nearly Normal Family

by M.T. Edvardsson

Experience tells me that when you dislike someone on such vague grounds, the problem often rests with you.

am adamant in my belief that nothing could be as difficult as being a parent. All other relationships have an emergency exit. You can leave a lover, and most people do at some point, if love ebbs away, if you grow apart, or if it no longer feels good in your heart. You can leave friends and acquaintances along the way, and relatives too, and even siblings and parents. You can leave and move on and still make it out okay. But you can never renounce your child.

“Does that feel good in your heart?” I asked when her headmaster called to say she had thrown another girl’s hat up onto the roof of the school. Stella stared back at me. “My heart doesn’t feel anything. It’s just beating.”

My eyes followed the glimmering string of streetlights off to the horizon and I thought about how mercy comes to the patient. The righteous hold to their way.

Death is seldom so tangible as when you can see how alive a person once was.

It’s awfully ironic that the sides of me that bother Dad most are the things I inherited from him.

The butterfly effect, it’s called. A single beat of a butterfly’s wings can have enormous consequences and affect everything that happens.

“Many people are frightened of the fact that reality is changeable. People seek security in their lives. So a person might feel that they’re in control when they have the chance to predict what will happen, and when they can make good decisions based on solid knowledge.”

Maybe sometimes all it takes to believe you’re in love is being appreciated and valued. Being seen for who you are, admired for your existence rather than your actions.