One Small Mistake

by Dandy Smith

if someone told me I had to be unhappy for a year and then it would all be over, I could handle that. But if someone told me I had to be unhappy for the next fifty years, I’d have to make a change.’

That’s the thing about words – once they’re out there, they’re no longer just yours. They hang in the quiet and are plucked like cherries from a tree then, bitter or sweet, they’re devoured.

Kindness is free. Throw it around like glitter.’

I didn’t need a love that burns. That consumes. That blisters and melts the skin from my bones. I needed this. The love I have with my family. My friends. My living, laughing, breathing sister. And maybe someday, the love I’ll have with another man. What I need now and what I’ll need always, is a love that washes over me like river water. That soothes. A love I can bathe in.