Everybody Lies.

“It is your part to kill me, mine to die without flinching.”

“The bruises go away, and so does how you hate, and so does the feeling that everything you receive from life is something you have earned.”

Suppose there is an end to our suffering. Like a chariot, the absence of grief circles us with the obstinate heat of the largest star. To believe in the radiant orbit of this fire. To face an empty cup and find the constellated mire of you and me and the toppling of a century. We rise from the painful corridors of a life.

“Having perfected our disguise, we spend our lives searching for someone we don’t fool.”

“Grief is a circular staircase. I have lost you.”

“Hold my hand in yours, and we will not fear what hands like ours can do.”

and though I shun you, you are everywhere I go; In the deep woods, your image haunts my sight;

Some of us         did not         die

“If you were raised in an environment where emotion was minimized, seen as weakness, invalidated, shut down, perceived as wasteful (e.g., crying won’t help), or even punished, then giving yourself permission to feel, recognize, and explore may be a bigger challenge. You might be the first person in your life to grant yourself the permission you need to experience emotion. If you’re worried that giving permission to experience and engage with emotion will turn you into something you’re not or someone you don’t want to become—it won’t. It will, however, give you the opportunity to be your most authentic self. We are wired to be emotional beings. When that part of us is shut down, we’re not whole.”