A Thousand Letters

For time cannot stop,

But moments,

Seconds,

A fleeting smile,

A kiss in the sunlight,

Can live forever.

- M. White

In life

(Unlike death)

There are few constants:

The sun will rise;

Your lungs will breathe;

Your heart will love.

- M. White

"Do you think that there's an end to love?"

Elliot considered for a second.

"What I mean is," Sophie continued, "the longer someone's gone, do you think the love … diminishes? Is there a limit to its length?"

Elliot laid the sweater in a heap in her lap, her hands buried somewhere inside of it. "I think that every day the answer to that question is different. Some days the loss is as fresh as the day the love left. Some days, you can breathe, not think of it for a stretch, sometimes just for an hour or a few minutes, sometimes for days. Sometimes you'll go a day or a week without breathing once because the loss is suffocating. It takes different faces: anger, hurt, longing. Sometimes it's bittersweet joy, because for a moment, you had it all. I want to tell you the pain gets easier, but it doesn't. You only learn to bear it. But there's comfort in knowing you loved and were loved in return, even though it's no consolation. Only a truth you carry around with you forever."