cummings Edward Hirsch Ellen Bass Emily Dickinson Faith Shearin Galway Kinnell Garrison Keillor Glen Hansard Gratitude grief J.D.

Join 4,942 other subscribers Care to read through the archives? Care to read through the archives? Categories Categories Random Authors and Topics Alice Walker Ali Shapiro Anaïs Nin Andrea Gibson Anne Sexton Annie Dillard Billy Collins Brian Dean Powers Caitlyn Siehl Cats Charles Bukowski Cheryl Strayed Clementine von Radics Compassion czeslaw milosz Dana Gioia David Foster Wallace David Levithan David Shumate David Whyte death Dennis O'Driscoll depression dogs Dorianne Laux e.e. And she wants to know that she is worthy to be loved, that she is worthy to be kept. You must love her because many have tried and failed.

You must be there to hold her when she is about to. You must know how long it takes for her to give up. You must know the reason why she is silent. She wants to know that she is enough and she does not need to change for you, nor for anyone else because she is she and she is beautiful, kind and good. When you make her feel that you are fleeting. When you make her feel that she is replaceable. You lose her for every second you make her feel less and less of the beauty that she is. You lose her when you don’t notice that she notices everything about you: your use of the proper punctuation that tells her continuation rather than finality, your silence when you’re about to ask a question but you think anything you’re about to say to her would be silly, your mindless humming when it is too quiet, your handwriting when you sign your name in blank sheets of paper, your muted laughter when you are trying to be polite, and more and more of what you are, which you don’t even know about yourself, because she pays attention. You lose her when you forget to remember the little things that mean the world to her: the sincerity in a stranger’s voice during a trip to the grocery, the delight of finding something lost or forgotten like a sticker from when she was five, the selflessness of a child giving a part of his meal to another, the scent of new books in the store, the surprise short but honest notes she tucks in her journal and others you could only see if you look closely.

This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz