This Place of Wonder

by Barbara O'Neal

it felt good to just listen to people without judgment.

I can feel the dark hole of her grief right on the other side of her silence.

Licorice is an abomination.

the harsh doom of almost hangs over my happiness.

Life is not always tidy, but we don’t have to suffer in every possible way.”

it feels like is a glowing sun brightening the entirety of everything.

Only people without the kind of wounds she and I carried think you need to live it all over again. Not everything can be forgiven. Not everything can be healed.

If you let people into the secrets of your life, the worst of it will always be at the forefront of their minds.

grief is a thing you have to carry.

Children are not equal.

Grief like a wild animal crawls through my body, slamming itself into my belly, my heart. I can barely breathe.

I let go of all the things he should have been, and allow myself to love the things he was.