The Words We Lost

I can't erase the darkness for you, but I can be the one to hold the light when you're ready to come home.

God is often made visible by the hands and feet of the people He places in our lives.

No heartache has ever gone unseen, and no darkness is ever too solid for light to overcome.

A reminder that even though there are still things to talk and sing and laugh about in this life, there are also things to miss and lament and grieve, too. Both are welcome and both are necessary.

Because we’ve both learned the hard way that falling in love is far simpler than staying in love.

If you waste your heart on hate, you’ll miss the good life has to give.

It was hers to make, mine to support, and God’s to control.

no heartache has ever gone unseen and no darkness has ever been too dark for light to overcome.

... but missing someone doesn't always have to be sad, does it? If not, then I'll miss you happy. And I'll miss you laughing. And I'll miss you with every ounce of joy I possess until I'm with you again.

Success is a slow, long process of repetition.

Grief is far more like a permanent squatter who doesn’t take no for an answer and who leaves your most cherished possessions ransacked and in tatters.

Perhaps this was what love did to a person: It slowly turned up the temperature from within so that eventually the outside of a person had no choice but to match the warmth of the inside.

that was the thing about loss, even when you didn’t make room for it, it showed up anyway, usually unannounced.

My mom always says God sees every tear we cry—that He collects them in a bottle. And I guess, when I think about it, it makes sense that God would use the ocean as His bottles.

He says the ocean is the only place big enough to hold all the sorrow in our world.

Before I can even attempt to lower my heart rate, she's velcroed herself to me with the kind of hug one might extend if they held proof of a matched blood relation.

Sometimes the happiest endings begin after a cliffhanger.

Life was too unpredictable not to make a permanent declaration of what mattered most.

milestone memories are the hardest to erase because they wedge themselves deepest into the soul.

we can’t change the time we’ve spent, just how we choose to spend the time we have left.

I’m learning that much like love, grief is meant to be shared.

Funny how differently time is prioritized when it’s in short supply.

But grief isn’t like a well-mannered houseguest you can send home when you’re not feeling up to hosting. Grief is far more like a permanent squatter who doesn’t take no for an answer and who leaves your most cherished possessions ransacked and in tatters.

There is no perfect way to tell a painful truth.

I can’t erase the darkness for you

I never needed you to be strong enough. I only ever needed you to be here.

Loss clarifies even the muddiest of circumstances.