Irrevocable

March 15, 2025March 21, 2025Leave a comment

Irrevocable by Valerie Parente

In my anxiety
I imagine
if I lost it all
and in my anxiety
I imagine
my reaction
to if I lost it all
and the first thought that comes to mind
is “I’ve had such a great life”
because something about being without
makes me realize how unfathomably blessed I’ve been
and in what I lack in the present tense
I’ve gained the ability to see how the universe once filled that space
and to be able to recognize a miracle
is an irrevocable miracle in itself.
The world can decay and the universe can evaporate
but to no longer be blind to how life was great
is not a loss, it’s a gain.

– Valerie Parente (3-15-2025)

Time… It Heals

January 6, 2023January 8, 2023Leave a comment

“Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“… That time heals the pain?”
“Yes, as time goes by you will smile at their memory instead of cry.”
“Is that because you start to forget about them?”
“No. You do not forget- you remember. You remember all those times together instead of that one moment you lost them.”

– Valerie Parente (1-6-2023)

The Carrier

May 20, 2022May 20, 2022Leave a comment

The Carrier by Valerie Parente

You have been given the greatest honor
when your loved one is visible no longer
and now you get to carry them with you
in everything that you do.
It will be challenging some days
but you will always find the strength
because wherever there is hurt
there was love there first.
There will be confusion but it always comes back
to this everlasting fact:
that loved ones remain forever within
so you never have to be alone again.

– Valerie Parente (5-16-2022)

An Idiom for Comfort

January 23, 2020January 23, 2020Leave a comment

An Idiom for Comfort by Valerie Parente

I didn’t mean to overreact
But I was so damn tired of the same broken path
No, you weren’t the worst I’ve ever had
You were just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

– Valerie Parente (1-23-2020)