The Bright Side of Going Dark

by Kelly Harms

But someone blames me, after all. I blame me.

You give people a distraction from their real lives and a false sense of familiarity that stands between them and having true connection, true community. Your impossible-to-live-up-to images make people think there’s no point in even trying to enjoy the messy real lives they have been given.”

“Everything you can do on a phone you can do better without a phone. Except the self-numbing and avoidance. Just skip those.”

My mom can do this: she can grieve, she can take as long as she needs. She never feels that push, push, push to move on.

That’s her secret: if you are unwilling to reshape yourself every time the times change, you are, effectively, timeless.

If she only understood how that ticker tape of disapproval makes it so hard to hear the things I actually need to know.