Sometimes the people you loved left you halfway through a story. Sometimes they left you without a goodbye. And, sometimes, they stayed around in little ways. In the memory of a musical. In the smell of their perfume. In the sound of the rain, and the itch for adventure, and the yearning for that liminal space between one airport terminal and the n

That was love, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just a quick drop—it was falling, over and over again, for your person. It was falling as they became new people. It was learning how to exist with every new breath. It was uncertain and it was undeniably hard, and it wasn’t something you could plan for. Love was an invitation into the wild unknown, one step at a

“Life doesn’t always go as planned. The trick is to make the most of it when it doesn’t,” she said matter-of-factly.

passport renewed, always pair red wines with meats and whites with everything else . . .” I counted on my fingers. “Find fulfilling work, fall in love, and chase the moon.”

I loved how a book, a story, a set of words in a sentence organized in the exact right order, made you miss places you’ve never visited, and people you’ve never met.

the way he said my name just then felt like a promise,

She lived because she loved, and she lived because she was loved, and what a lovely lifetime she gave us.

Because of all the light and love and joy that she found in the shadows of everything that plagued her.

all you need to do is fall in love once, though, to be ruined by it forever.