#grieving

"Death is harder on those who are left behind."

"How can I grieve what is still in motion?"I ask her. "Shoes are still dropping all over the place. I´m not kidding,"I say. "It´s Normandy out there."

"Tears shed for another person are not a sign of weakness. They are a sign of a pure heart."

"It isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for that long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security."

"Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.But no, that is not quite accurate. There is one place where her absence comes locally home to me, and it is a place I can't avoid. I mean my own body. It had such a different importance while it was the body of H.'s lover. Now it's like an empty house."

"At the end of the day your ability to connect with your readers comes down to how you make them feel."

"...what happens when you returnand find nothingbut a hollowed shell,shingles and floor,walls and echoesand the light that lead you herehas now burned outand the ones who built ithave traveled afarand you cant go to them,no matter what shoes you wear."

"My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself."

"In this sad world of ours sorrow comes to all and it often comes with bitter agony. Perfect relief is not possible except with time. You cannot now believe that you will ever feel better. But this is not true. You are sure to be happy again. Knowing this, truly believing it will make you less miserable now. I have had enough experience to make this statement."

"The great love is gone. There are still little loves - friend to friend, brother to sister, student to teacher. Will you deny yourself comfort at the hearthfire of a cottage because you may no longer sit by the fireplace of a palace? Will you deny yourself to those who reach out to you in hopes of warming themselves at your hearthfire?"