Sparks Like Stars

by Nadia Hashimi

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.

You need no one to confirm you. You are everything you believe yourself to be.

Don’t expect him to bow at your feet because you saved him today. He’s saved himself every other day of his life.

You miss them, she said. That’s grief, and grief is nothing but the far brink of love. Love is the sun, grief is the shadow it casts. Love is an opera, grief is its echo. You cannot have one without the other. But if you follow that grief, you’ll find your way back to love. You haven’t let yourself do that yet, and you need to—in your own way. So cry, scream, run, sleep, pray, or write love notes in the sand. But grieve, so you can get back to love, because love is a better place to be.

“There’s a saying I heard once,” Mom shares. “Prayer is you talking to God. But meditation is God talking to you.”