Oona Out of Order

by Margarita Montimore

Is this what it means to get older, replaying happy memories because the best times are behind you?

“Hiraeth: homesickness for something that never was and never could be.”

Mama used to say what you dislike in other people is really what you dislike in yourself.

Make your life more about letting in the good things than preventing the bad things.

But there was a freedom in making mistakes, feeling broken, falling into the void, and then climbing out. A freedom in letting go, setting aside, moving on.

There would be bad days, there always would. But she’d collect these good days, each one illuminated, and string them together until they glowed brightly in her memory like Christmas lights in a mirrored room.