I can’t believe that it’s been ten years since we last saw each other. I remember clearly how we used to see each other every day at school. The early morning hellos, the few stolen minutes of chatting in between classes, the hour-long exchanges of stories during lunch breaks, and the short but sweet farewells […]
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I never wanted to fall in love with you. I never wanted it to happen that way, never meant to let the news of your existence spill across my being, never meant to let my heart thump against my ribs when you smiled like that from across the coffee table. I never meant to let you […]
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Track coaches always say: “It’s not how you start a race; it’s how you finish it.” At this time of year, college and high school seniors are seeing the finish line of their race to graduation. If you are rounding the curve and getting to that final sprint, the going might be getting tough now. Just […]
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She closes her eyes for the last time. At first, it’s a relief. She’s tired, and she likes the feel of the rain on her face. But then, she sees her body on the road, the car lights shining in the distance. Her soul is yanked back, back, back. She sees her little hands and […]
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The memory of you feels so real. It glitters there, in the back of my neck, filtering through marrow & veins & flesh that once felt imprinted with your scent. It’s what they call sillage and I have to believe them, if only to know you might still be with me in some molecular way. […]
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I picked up All the Bright Places toward the end of January 2015. I was over a month out from my birthday, weeks out from Christmas, and exactly two weeks out from my mom’s death anniversary. The winter holidays are always a hard time for me because it’s an avalanche of dates and emotions and […]
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Click. The shiver ran down my spine. Click. The light seared into my eyelids. Click. One instant, one tiny corner of the world, captured by a Click. I looked at the moment in time, extended forever on the camera screen. The butterfly’s wings were precisely detailed, as lucid as the fluttering model in the meadow, […]
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I have experienced it and desired it for years without knowing there is a word for it. But I’ve finally discovered it! Petrichor. I said it out loud. I followed the advice I have given my kids on many occasions when they did not understand the meaning of a word: “Use it in a sentence.” So, here it […]
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On my grandmother’s front porch where we gathered on Sunday afternoons, Paul seemed to be the most relaxed of uncles, pipe stem poised in his mouth only to be pulled out for a few quiet responses, his voice low and slow. He sat in a metal lawn chair at the far end of the porch, […]
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